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More than 1,500 Right to Buy homes returned to council ownership under GLA scheme
More than 1,500 council homes previously sold off under the Right to Buy have been returned to local authority ownership under a scheme launched last year by London mayor Sadiq Khan.
The mayor’s office announced today that since the ‘Right to Buy-back’ initiative commenced in July 2021, 1,577 homes across the capital have been, or are in the process of being, regained by London boroughs.
Of these, 908 will be converted into social rented stock, with the remainder being used as temporary accommodation for homeless families.
By far the largest allocations have gone to the London boroughs of Hounslow and Newham, which have bought back 574 and 408 properties respectively.
Of those bought by Hounslow, 19 have been designated as homes for refugees fleeing Afghanistan, under an expansion of the scheme announced after the Taliban seized power last year.
In all, 14 London boroughs had accessed the scheme as of 20 July, with Lewisham (100 homes), Hackney (86), Havering (79) and Camden (75) also significant beneficiaries.
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Damien Egan, mayor of Lewisham, said that Right to Buy-back is “already making a big difference” in the borough.
“We have been able to bring homes back into public ownership, helping to house families on our housing waiting list, many of whom have had years waiting in hostels and B&Bs,” Mr Egan said.
Of the £152m allocated to date, £85m has come via the £4.8bn Affordable Homes Programme 2016-23, while slightly under £67m has come from ringfenced Right to Buy receipts.
Local authorities bid for Right to Buy-back money in the same way they would for a new development scheme.
In the last financial year, 1,756 London council homes were sold under the Right to Buy, with around 23,000 going in the past decade.
Only around 14,000 replacements have been delivered via Right to Buy receipts, the mayor’s office said.
While the rate of sales has slowed in recent years, more than 300,000 London council homes have been lost to the private sector since the policy was introduced in 1980.
Research by Inside Housing has found that as many as 40% of homes sold under Right to Buy have fallen into the hands of private landlords.
Mr Khan said: “For more than 40 years, London’s precious council homes have been disappearing into the private sector, often never to be replaced.
“As mayor I have maintained a relentless focus on stemming the tide and replenishing London’s social housing stock. I am proud that, thanks to my interventions, we have brought council homebuilding back up to levels not seen since the 1970s and I’m hugely encouraged by the enthusiasm I see from boroughs across London for building new council homes and using Right to Buy-back to return homes to public ownership.”
Under the terms of the Right to Buy-back scheme, all homes purchased through it must meet the government’s Decent Homes Standard.
The mayor’s office said the initiative would help to fulfil a recent pledge made by Mr Khan to create 20,000 new council homes by 2024. This came after a previous target of 10,000 by the end of 2021-22 – set in 2018 – was met.
A supplementary £1m revenue fund was also launched earlier this year, aimed at boosting council housing teams’ short-term capacity and resources to enable them to increase acquisitions funded via the Right to Buy-back fund.
Mr Khan’s office said that eight boroughs had been successful in accessing this money, with details to be announced soon.
“These boroughs will receive grants to help hire new staff, boost in-house skills and capacity of staff purchasing these homes and to cover technical services that helps to shift homes from the market into council ownership,” a statement said.
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