Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 30 June 2025 to Question 61519 on Right to Buy Scheme, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the Right to Buy on receipts for new affordable housing construction since July 2024.
The government’s Right to Buy discounts review, which can be found on gov.uk here, was published alongside the Budget on 30 October 2024. It estimated that returning maximum cash discounts to pre-2012 levels would lead to a long-term average of approximately 1,700 Right to Buy sales per year, generating, on average, approximately £250 million of annual net receipts.
As confirmed at that Budget, the government is allowing councils to retain the full capital receipt generated by a Right to Buy sale to support the delivery of replacement dwellings. As a result of all these measures, we believe local authorities will now be in a stronger position to replace the homes that are sold.
In the Written Ministerial Statement made on 2 July 2025 (HCWS771), I confirmed further reforms to the Right to Buy. We will legislate when parliamentary time allows to bring these reforms into force.