More tenants could be excluded from Right to Buy

More social housing tenants could be stopped from buying their own homes as part of a shake up of Right to Buy policy.

Under the proposals, tenants may have to wait more than ten years to buy their homes and those living in newly built social homes may never be able to buy.

The government also wants to cut Right to Buy discounts back to pre-2012 levels and discourage social tenants from selling the homes they have bought.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said its changes will address the loss of social housing, but the Conservatives said Labour is “limiting aspiration and social mobility”.

Since the Right to Buy policy was introduced in 1980, almost every year has seen a net loss in social housing stock as successive governments have failed to replace the housing that has been bought or demolished.

There are 1.4 million fewer English households in social housing than there were in 1980, according Shelter’s analysis.

“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,” said Rayner.

“We cannot fix the crisis without addressing this issue – it’s like trying to fill a bath when the plug’s not in.”

The housing department has proposed increasing the minimum amount of time tenants have to live in their social home before buying them from the current three years.

It was reduced to three years from five years in 2014, but the government is seeking views on whether to raise it to five years, 10 years, or more than 10 years.

It is also considering banning tenants from buying any newly built social housing.

Currently, tenants can buy housing that is more than three years old, but it has proposed increasing the length of time newly built social housing is protected from being bought to between 10 and 30 years or “permanently”.

It also wants to reduce the maximum discounts for tenants using Right to Buy to between £16,000 and £38,000 depending on the council – bringing them back to pre-2012 levels.

Under the current rules, tenants have to repay this discount to the council if they then sell the property on within five years of buying. The government wants to extend this to 10 years.

The measures come after the government announced other changes to Right to Buy in the Budget, including allowing councils to spend all of the money they get from a Right to Buy sale on buying or building new social housing rather than just half.

Not everyone supports Labour’s Right to Buy reforms. Shadow housing secretary Kevin Hollinrake accused the government of “pulling up the drawbridge on home ownership and limiting aspiration and social mobility”.

“The Right to Buy has helped millions into home ownership. It has given something back to families who worked hard, paid their rent, and played by the rules,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shelter chief executive Polly Neate said Right to Buy reform was “vital… but not enough on its own”, adding that the changes “must be combined with serious investment in social homes in the Spring Spending Review”.

Rayner has made social housing her mission in government, having previously told the BBC she wants to see “the biggest wave of council housing in a generation and that is what I want to be measured on”.

Some have urged the government to be more radical on Help to Buy with Manchester mayor Andy Burnham calling for it to be “suspended” while others have called for it to be scrapped entirely.