Right To Buy Replacements Hit Highest Level Since Discounts Were Hiked

The number of homes built or acquired to replace those lost through Right to Buy sales has hit its highest point since the scheme was reinvigorated in 2012. Government figures show that in the final quarter of 2020/21, councils in England delivered 2,060 homes using Right to Buy receipts, compared to 340 in the final quarter of 2012/13. This is the highest quarterly figure since 2012 when the government revived the Right to Buy scheme with significantly bigger discounts in a bid to increase sales. It is also up 23% on the 1,674 Right to Buy replacement starts or acquisitions made by councils between October and December 2020. See the full set of figures on the GovUK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/right-to-buy-sales-in-england-january-to-march-2021 

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he is meeting the Government's commitment to replace homes sold through the council right to buy scheme.

James Brokenshire: The latest figures for the replacement of council homes sold under the Right to Buy can be found in the statistical release Right to Buy Sales in England: July to September 2018 , and show a shortfall of 2,501 replacements against additional sales.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-01-28/213230

Councils Urge Government To Act On Right To Buy Receipts

Calling on the government to change the rules on Right to Buy in this month’s Autumn Budget, the LGA warned that councils are currently able to replace only a third of homes sold under the Right to Buy. The scheme, it said, could “grind to a halt” if the government does not change rules preventing councils from keeping more than a third of the proceeds received from council tenants buying their homes. According to the LGA, 12,826 homes were sold off under the scheme in 2016/17, and councils only started 4,475 in replacement. Read more on the LGA website.

CLG Considering Allowing Shared Ownership For RTB Replacements

Housing minister Alok Sharma is examining the request, submitted by Treasury advisor Arlingclose on behalf of the authorities in June. The proposals call for legislation to be changed to allow councils to spend money raised through Right to Buy sales on purchasing homes from the open market for shared ownership. Councils are supposed to replace homes lost through the Right to Buy with new builds for affordable rent, but are only allowed to spend 30% of receipts on the construction costs. Virtually all the homes sold under the Right to Buy are social rent properties, and the policy move would raise fears over the further depletion of social rented stock. Read more on Inside Housing.

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make it his policy to ensure that local authorities that sell council houses use receipts to build replacement stock.

Gavin Barwell: Local authorities should manage their stock efficiently, including reinvesting sales receipts in new housing. Where our policies directly relate to local authorities selling council housing, we think it is important that receipts are used to deliver replacement homes. For example, under the reinvigorated Right to Buy, we are committed to ensuring that for every additional home sold an additional one will be provided nationally.

Council House Replacements

Roughly one in six council homes which are sold off under Right to Buy are replaced. But does this mean that there are fewer council houses available?  The number of council properties available for social rent in England has been falling in the last few years. In 2014/15, there were 1,635,000. That’s 28,000 less than in 2013/14 when there were 1,663,000 available. That's not the whole story. Councils nowadays own a much smaller proportion of the country's social rented housing stock compared to what they once did. Housing associations are the biggest provider of houses for social rent. So to understand the complete picture these need to be considered too. Read more on the Full Fact website.

First Right-To-Buy Sales Go Through After Pilots

The first sales have taken place under the government's controversial right-to-buy policy for housing association tenants. A handful of sales have gone through in recent days in London and Merseyside following a pilot project involving five housing associations. The housing minister said every house sold would be replaced. But the chairwoman of the public accounts committee said ministers had no idea how much the scheme would cost. Under the pilot schemes in London, Merseyside, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and Surrey, tenants had to have been resident for 10 years before they could become eligible to buy. Read more on the GovUK website.

RTB Replacements Pledge Under Threat

The government is on course to break its pledge to replace council homes sold under the Right to Buy by more than 14,000 homes.  To meet the promise, made by David Cameron in 2011, councils must build almost 21,000 more replacement homes by March 2019. But with housing budgets under pressure, the number of replacements started by councils fell 27% to just 2,055 in the last financial year – less than a third of what is needed annually.  A Local Government Association spokesperson said: “If we are to stand any chance of solving our housing crisis, councils must be able to replace all sold homes.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Councils Could Rely On Developers For Replacements

Councils could be forced to rely on private developers to replace high-value homes sold to fund the Right to Buy extension. Baroness Susan Williams, parliamentary undersecretary at the CLG, made the admission in a debate about the policy in the House of Lords. Pressed over what would happen if a council was left with no funds to replace homes due to the demand for Right to Buy homes, Baroness Williams said: “My Lords, in that sort of situation, I would imagine that the local authority has a number of options available to it, including the use of capital reserves, or indeed borrowing if it wished to. Alternatively, of course, private sector developers could build housing.”  The comments are the latest indication there might not be enough funding from the sale of council housing to fund both Right to Buy discounts and replacement council homes. Read more on Inside Housing.

Eight Thoughts On Cameron's £140m “Sink Estate” Revamp Policy

David Cameron has announced plans to spend £140m rebuilding up to 100 of Britain's worst sink estates. Here, in no particular order, are eight thoughts on the plan.

·         Rebuilding some estates is probably a good thing

·         It helps solve the land problem

·         You can probably get more homes on this land than they currently contain

·         The money is a joke

·         So is the commitment to replacement housing

·         Right-to-buy makes this harder

·         It's all a bit utopian

·         These are still people's homes

Read full details on the City Metric website.

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Asked by Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many homes sold under the Right to Buy scheme since 2000 have been replaced; and whether they will place the figures for each year since 2000 in the Library of the House.

Baroness Williams of Trafford: In the first year (2012/13) following the reinvigoration of Right to Buy by the last Government, there were 3,054 additional homes sold. By the end of Q1 2015/16 there were 3,644 new starts and acquisitions. Councils have three years to replace the additional homes sold.

Right To Buy: A Third Of Councils Don't Replace Houses

One in three councils has not replaced a single house sold through the Right to Buy scheme, official data has found.  With separate analysis suggesting as many as 113,000 council homes will need to be sold off to fund the scheme, some fear it will leave many areas bereft of affordable housing. Analysis of provisional figures from the CLG showed that, of the 166 councils in England listed as having sold properties through Right to Buy since 2012, 33% had not replaced a single home. Just one council in 12 (8%) had managed to build enough to replace half their stock, and only two had succeeded in replacing more than 100% of those sold. Read more on the Huffington Post website.

New Government Should Adopt a More Flexible Approach to Right to Buy

The next government should adopt a more flexible approach to the Right to Buy (RTB) scheme say councils, as a new survey shows most authorities only expect to be able to replace half or fewer of the homes they sell under it. Government figures show that about 11,260 homes were sold under the scheme between 2013 and 2014, almost double the 2012 to 2013 figure of 5,944. However, 73 per cent of councils responding to the survey feel that the current system only allows them to replace half or fewer of homes they have sold. Twelve per cent said they will not be able to replace any at all. Read more on the LGA website.

‘Modular’ Homes to Replace Properties Lost To Right to Buy

Sandwell Council is to buy 41 sustainable ‘modular’ homes in Smethwick to boost its housing stock and replace properties lost to the controversial right to buy scheme. The council is buying 19 two-bedroom, 18 three-bedroom and four four-bedroom properties with the reminder of the homes being sold by the developer on the open market. The homes are being built by Mar City Homes Ltd using a modular construction system, meaning they are made indoors in factory conditions and then transported and assembled on permanent foundations on site. Read more on the Sandwell Council website.

Treasury Grabs £358m of Right to Buy Receipts

The Treasury has hived off £358.1m from the sale of council houses, making it ‘almost impossible’ to fund replacements and sparking cross-sector calls for a review of the policy. Responding to a Freedom of Information act request, the government confirmed almost a quarter of the £1.54bn raised through 22,900 right to buy sales since 2012 has gone straight into Treasury coffers. Only £588.3m was left for councils to build replacement homes, with a total of £929.4m used for other purposes. Read more on Inside Housing.

Right to Buy Sales Double to 11,000 in a Year

The number of social homes sold through right to buy doubled to hit 11,000 in the last financial year, the latest government statistics reveal. In the final quarter of 2013/14, councils sold 3,376 homes, raising £243 million. The figures showed this took the final figure for the year to 11,238, raising £750 million, compared with 5,944 last year. Just 2,115 replacement homes were started onsite over the course of the year, despite a government promise that all additional homes sold would be replaced on a one-for-one basis. Only a portion of the sales receipts are retained for replacements, with a formula-based calculation sending some of the cash back to the Treasury and some to a council’s general fund. View all statistics for RtB on the GovUK website.

Council Slammed After Breaking Promise to Replace Right to Buy Homes

Westminster City Council has been slammed after selling off 66 flats under the right to buy scheme and failing to replace them with new homes. According to figures uncovered by Labour councillors in the borough, the Tory-led local authority has made £16.2 million from the 66 flat sales since 2010. Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour Group, said: “The Conservatives promised that for every council flat sold under the right to buy a new home would be built to replace each one sold. "That promise has turned out to be completely worthless and not one single new replacement council property has been built in Westminster since 2010 despite the council receiving over £16 million for the 66 flats sold.” Read more on 24dash.

Right to Buy Changes Could Leave Areas with Less Affordable Housing

Council leaders have criticised the Government's latest changes to the Right to Buy scheme, saying the Coalition's centralised approach could leave some areas in need of affordable housing with fewer properties, not more. The Local Government Association claims the Government has "missed an opportunity" to ensure it delivers investment in new housing. A spokesman said: "A centralised Right to Buy cap fails to take into account local housing demand and the cost of building new homes. As the level of discount may not leave enough funds to build a replacement home, some areas in need of more affordable homes may actually be left with fewer. The LGA also argue that councils should be allowed to keep 100 per cent of the receipts from Right to Buy sales if they agree to use it for a replacement dwelling, saying it is crucial that funds are re-invested in house building as quickly as possible. Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Social Rented Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Sir Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he has taken to speed up the delivery of replacement social homes for rent for those lost through Right to Buy; and if he will make a statement.

Kris Hopkins: The reinvigorated Right to Buy scheme is helping social tenants become new home owners; it levers in new finance to increase construction and house building; and it assists new people into affordable housing who would otherwise be on a housing waiting list. One of the key changes we have made to the Right to Buy is to ensure that all additional receipts raised from local authority Right to Buy sales are used to directly fund new homes for affordable rent. Since April 2012, £219 million has been generated from additional sales and 1,622 homes have been started on site or acquired. There will invariably be a certain time lag between the Right to Buy sale and the construction of the new build home, but the replacement timetable is in control of the local authority. If a council were to fail to spend the receipts within three years, it would be required to return the unspent money to government with interest. This provides a strong financial incentive for any slow-coach councils to use this new funding and get on with building more homes for local people.

Ministers ‘Breaking Promise over New Council Homes’

The Government is breaking its promise to ensure that a new council house or flat is built to replace every one sold to tenants, official figures have revealed. When the Coalition announced a new Right to Buy drive, ministers pledged to ensure that there was no net loss of council housing. But so far the Government’s own statistics suggest that building work on only one new property has been started for every seven local authority homes sold to tenants. In the 2012-13 financial year and in the year to date, 10,954 council homes have been sold under the scheme, but only 1,662 replacements were started in the same period. Read more on the Independent website.