Local authorities in England have spent a total of £1.7bn repurchasing former right-to-buy homes, with £1bn of this spent since 2020, a new analysis has revealed.
Around 8,600 homes in England sold under Right to Buy have been subsequently purchased by local authorities, 5,900 of them since 2020, according to the analysis of freedom of information (FOI) responses by PA Media.
The data comprises FOI responses from 117 councils, 111 of which were able to provide data on how much they had spent. Islington Council had spent the most, at a total cost of £146m, with Lambeth coming in second (£112m). Barnet, Haringey and Brighton and Hove have each spent more than £80m.
Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director at IPPR, commented on the findings: ‘The scale of councils selling off properties, only to buy them back a few years later, highlights the absurdity of the austerity years – selling low, buying high, short-term savings at the expense of long-term costs, penny-wise but pound-foolish.
‘As the consequences now come to bear, and councils struggle with related symptoms of the housing crisis like rising homelessness, it is crucial that the Westminster government thinks long-term and provides sustainable funding settlements for local authorities so they can avoid this situation happening again.’
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