Rayner to lose homes faster than she can build them in Right to Buy crackdown

Housing Secretary triggers record number of applications as reforms backfire

13 May 2025

Daily Telegraph 

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Right to Buy applications are projected to reach a two-decade high ahead of Labour’s dramatic overhaul of the scheme, analysis suggests.

The number of council tenants using Right to Buy will rocket by 162pc, with 18,500 homes changing hands in 2025-26, according to local authority predictions.

But experts warned the surge would effectively undermine Angela Rayner’s home building ambitions. She previously pledged to build 18,000 new social homes by 2029.

Right to Buy, a flagship policy of Margaret Thatcher, allows tenants who have lived in a council property for three years or more to purchase it from their local authority at a discounted rate.

The requirement will rise to 10 years under reforms led by Ms Rayner, the Housing Secretary, who benefited from the Right to Buy scheme herself.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, also cut the maximum discount available from £136,000 to £16,000 in most London boroughs and from £102,000 to £38,000 outside the capital. The decision was announced in her maiden Budget in October.

Analysis by the i newspaper found councils in some areas had seen applications for the scheme double following the announcement.

Overall, councils predicted 18,500 homes would be sold off in the next year. It amounts to the highest number of Right to Buy homes being sold in a single year than any other time in the last two decades.

Spike to ‘exacerbate homelessness challenges’

Dr Samuel Hughes, of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, warned that the Government’s reforms would make it “unaffordable for any but the richest tenants to take advantage of the scheme”.

He said: “It is not surprising that many are racing to buy their homes now, before they are taken out of reach.”

The Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, warned that the spike in Right to Buy applications “will further exacerbate the homelessness challenges that councils are working hard to address”.

The trade body maintained that the reforms were “a step in the right direction” but urged the Government to ensure the scheme was fit for purpose.

A spokesman said: “The Government announcement that Right to Buy discounts were to be reduced appeared to lead to a significant increase in the number of Right to Buy applications made by social housing tenants ahead of the reductions taking effect.

“Whilst there will be positive longer-term benefits of the discount levels in stemming the continued loss of stock, the short-term impact is a spike in the sale of desperately needed social homes.”

The Housing Department is spending £800m a year on its Affordable Homes Programme, and earmarked a further £2bn down payment in March’s spending review.

A government spokesman said: “Too many social homes have been sold off before they can be replaced, which has directly contributed to the worst housing crisis in living memory.

“This government has delivered on its manifesto commitment to reviewing the increased discounts introduced in 2012, and our reforms will reverse this decline and deliver a fairer scheme by supporting councils to retain the receipts to rebuild their housing stock, while retaining a route for longstanding tenants to own their own homes.”