Social housing gross sales got here in at simply over 17,500 final 12 months in England, tumbling by round 40% in comparison with the earlier two years, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Native Authorities knowledge reveals.
Social home gross sales amounted to 17,504 in 2023/24, in comparison with 24,278 the 12 months earlier than, down 39%, and 24,925 the 12 months earlier than that, down 42%.
The information could also be welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister and housing secretary Angela Rayner, who has beforehand stated Proper to Purchase reductions of as much as 70% supplied to council tenants could also be reduce.
An eight-week session by the Housing Ministry, which sought views on, “how the Proper to Purchase must be reformed,” closed final month.
The paper stated: “We need to be certain that council tenants who’ve lived in, and paid hire on, their social houses for a few years can retain the chance to personal their house.
“Nonetheless, reform of Proper to Purchase is crucial to higher shield much-needed social housing inventory, increase council capability and construct extra social houses than we lose, supporting the federal government’s dedication to ship the largest improve in social and inexpensive housebuilding in a technology.”
Final 12 months, Proper to Purchase gross sales tumbled by 38% to eight,656 with a lot of the the rest of social housing gross sales coming from a mix of “totally staircased gross sales” and “different gross sales”, in accordance with Ministry of Housing knowledge.
Proper to Purchase reform is a part of the federal government’s wider drive to construct 1.5 million houses over the following 5 years. The nation constructed round a million homes during the last 5 years.
Tenants can presently purchase houses beneath the Proper to Purchase scheme if they’ve lived in social housing for 3 years, at a most low cost of £102,400 throughout England, or £136,400 in London.
The coverage was launched in 1980 by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as certainly one of her flagship reforms.
Since 1980, there have been over 2 million house gross sales beneath the Proper to Purchase scheme, in accordance with Housing Ministry knowledge in March. Nonetheless, councils say they’ve little capability to interchange their social housing shares.
The coverage was initially credited with growing charges of house possession, however extra just lately has been blamed for contributing to the rise in homelessness.
