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Right to Buy sales plummet by 23%
Right to Buy sales fell 23% in the last quarter of 2018/19, while replacements slipped more than 4,000 homes behind the government’s one-for-one pledge.
Official figures released last week show councils in England sold an estimated 2,612 homes through the policy from January to March 2019, down from 3,396 in the same period last year.
Over the whole of 2018/19, 10,213 homes were sold – a 21% drop on 2017/18 and the lowest number since 2012/13 when Right to Buy discounts were raised dramatically.
Councils received £219.7m from Right to Buy sales from January to March, an average of £84,100 per home.
There were 1,406 homes started on-site or acquired by councils through the Right to Buy replacement policy, 13% less than in the same quarter last year.
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In 2012, then-prime minister David Cameron reinvigorated Right to Buy by increasing the maximum discount available to £75,000 on each home, with the figure raised to £100,000 in London a year later.
The government promised that each additional council home sold as a result of the hiked discounts would be replaced one-for-one, with starts on-site within three years of the sale.
It began missing this pledge in the last three months of 2017.
Last week’s figures show replacements now lag 4,170 homes behind the replacement commitment, with 23,685 additional affordable homes started or acquired between 2012/13 and 2018/19 against a target of 27,855.
A total of 78,271 council homes have been sold through the Right to Buy since 2012/13.
Councils are awaiting the outcome of a government consultation on how Right to Buy receipts can be used, which closed in October.
The discount has risen in line with inflation and is currently £103,900 in London and £77,900 outside the capital.
