Housing – Parliamentary Written Answer

Austin Mitchell:  To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many houses have been built under the Government's proposal to replace every house sold under its right to buy arrangements; and how many houses have been sold under those arrangements.

Brandon Lewis: The one-for-one replacement policy applies to additional local authority sales, that is sales above the level forecast before the reinvigoration of the policy in April 2012. Since the reinvigoration, local authorities have sold 14,700 additional sales, and over 4,795 dwellings have already been started on site or acquired. There will be a time lag between the Right to Buy sale, and the planning and 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.