Right to Buy | LocalGov

Rayner hints at 'fairer' Right to Buy

23/09/2024

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has hinted at incoming curbs on Right to Buy at the Labour Party Conference.

Addressing the temporary housing crisis

23/09/2024

Leo Stevens and Jonathan Jarvis Partners at Devonshires discuss street acquisitions and optimising the process.

Council leaders call for £644m housing boost

03/09/2024

More than 100 council leaders will today warn England’s council housing system is broken and call for an urgent £644m one-off cash injection to support it.

Councils spend £1.7bn repurchasing right-to-buy homes

23/08/2024

Local authorities in England have spent a total of £1.7bn repurchasing former right-to-buy homes, with £1bn of this spent since 2020, analysis reveals.

Reforming Right to Buy

31/07/2024

Hollie Wright, assistant researcher, New Economics Foundation (NEF), calls on the new government to rethink Right to Buy.

Call for ‘Right to Pause’ on Right to Buy

15/07/2024

Councils have called for the power to pause the Right to Buy (RTB) scheme when they are facing significant housing pressure.

Homelessness spending triples in eight years

02/07/2024

The proportion of councils’ total housing budget spent on homelessness and temporary accommodation has tripled since 2015, new analysis has revealed.

Labour manifesto pledges Right to Buy curbs

13/06/2024

Labour has opened the door to reining in Right to Buy in its manifesto, published today.

Nearly 190,000 social homes set to be lost by 2040

22/05/2024

The controversial Right to Buy scheme is set to reduce the dwindling social housing stock by nearly 190,000 properties by 2040, new research has revealed.

Four in 10 council homes sold under right to buy owned by private landlords

10/05/2024

More than four in 10 council homes sold under right to buy are now owned by private landlords, new research has revealed.

Re-elected Burnham calls for Right to Buy suspension powers

07/05/2024

Greater Manchester’s re-elected mayor has called for powers to suspend Right to Buy on new homes under plans to build 10,000 houses across the region.

Fresh call for Right to Buy restrictions

23/04/2024

Housing experts today called for fresh restrictions on the controversial Right to Buy policy – including a ban on applying it to new builds.

Right to Buy must reform, council bosses warn

13/02/2024

The Right to Buy scheme is causing the significant loss of social housing and cannot continue in its current form, the Local Government Association has said today.

LGA poised to shift position on Right to Buy

06/12/2023

Smith Square is poised to amend its position on Right to Buy, The MJ has learned.

Brum braced for Government intervention

12/09/2023

Birmingham City Council is braced for a wide-ranging Government intervention to help rescue the authority’s bleak finances, and improve political and officer leadership.

Council chiefs call for new housing deals

03/07/2023

New local housing deals should be given to every area in England by 2025 in order to spark a ‘generational step-change’ in council housebuilding, LGA says.

Councils to keep 100% of right to buy receipts

03/04/2023

Local authority leaders have welcomed the Government’s decision to allow councils to keep 100% of their right to buy receipts for the next two years.

Social housing set to lose nearly 60,000 homes

03/03/2023

Social housing in England will lose a further 57,000 homes by the end of the decade because of the Right to Buy scheme, according to new analysis.

London boroughs lose 23k homes to Right to Buy

24/08/2022

The capital’s council housing stock has shrunk by almost 6% over the past decade due to homes sold under Right to Buy.

Right to Buy under threat due to discounts worth £6bn

02/08/2022

Council leaders have warned that the billions of pounds that have been spent on Right to Buy discounts are threatening the future of the homeownership scheme.

Right to buy extended to housing association tenants

09/06/2022

Council leaders have warned that any homes sold under the newly extended right to buy scheme must be replaced on a like for like basis.

New Bill to put beauty at the heart of planning, says Gove

08/05/2022

The Queen’s Speech is set to include a new bill to revamp planning and kick start housebuilding, levelling up secretary Michael Gove has revealed.

Right to Buy policy has been a 'strategic failure' review warns

09/03/2022

The Right to Buy policy in England has become a 'strategic failure' that has exacerbated inequalities in society, a damning review has found.

Right to Buy-back fund launched

13/07/2021

London boroughs are to receive funding to purchase former council homes on the private market.

Councils to be given five years to spend Right to Buy receipts

22/03/2021

Councils will be given five years to spend receipts from Right to Buy sales as part of an overhaul of the key housing policy, local government secretary Robert Jenrick has announced.

‘Golden opportunity’ to end rough sleeping

22/05/2020

The Government has been urged to commit £100m to councils in a bid to end rough sleeping in England.

Councils call for more time to spend Right to Buy cash

28/04/2020

Council leaders have called for more time to spend money from Right to Buy sales, as most housebuilding has been halted in the wake of coronavirus.

Council chiefs worry £5bn Right to Buy discounts ‘threaten’ scheme

04/03/2020

Local authority leaders have warned that billions of pounds of centrally determined national discounts are threatening the future of Right to Buy (RtB).

Families forced into homelessness by ‘unaffordable’ housing

20/11/2019

A charity has warned families are being pushed into homelessness as figures reveal nine in 10 homes are unaffordable to families relying on housing benefit.

Scotland sees a 15% increase in its housing supply

24/09/2019

Scotland has seen an increase in its housing supply for the sixth year in a row, new figures reveal.

Council leaders call for Right to Buy reforms

27/08/2019

Councils have urged the Government to reform the Right to Buy scheme in next month's Spending Round.

London boroughs urge Whitehall to ‘turbocharge’ council housebuilding

31/07/2019

Local authorities in London have called on the Government to ‘turbocharge’ council housebuilding by lifting restrictions on the use of Right to Buy receipts.

Council chiefs call for devolution to rural communities after Brexit

04/07/2019

Local authority leaders have called on the Government to devolve more powers to rural areas in the event that Britain leaves the European Union.

District councils building more homes thanks to scrapping of HRA borrowing cap

02/07/2019

More homes are being built because of the Government lifting a cap on how much councils can spend, according to a new report.

Peers call for strategies to develop ‘under-performing’ rural areas

29/04/2019

Local authorities should develop their own strategies for realising the ‘potential in struggling and under-performing’ rural areas, committee says.

Unjust enrichment?

23/04/2019

Housing authorities should take care when relying upon valuations that will feed into section 125 notices, says Amy Rogers, of the disputes team at Cripps.

ALMOs unable to replace 31% of Right to Buy sales in 2018

05/04/2019

Local authority housing companies were unable to replace 31% of properties sold under Right to Buy, a new survey has revealed.

Homeownership schemes failing ‘less well off’

04/04/2019

The Government’s homeownership schemes are failing those on low and middle incomes, according to a provider of affordable rent to buy homes.

‘Suspend’ costly Right to Buy scheme, housing body says

29/03/2019

Right to Buy is ‘reducing’ the number of affordable homes available at a time when homelessness is on the rise, warns Chartered Institute of Housing.

Right to Buy should be more ‘flexible’, think tank says

22/10/2018

Social housing tenants should be given the option of using the value of their Right to Buy discount to purchase a different home, a think tank has argued.

Councils call for extension on time limit for all Right to Buy receipts

09/10/2018

District councils have urged the Government to extend the time limit for spending Right to Buy receipts for both existing and future receipts.

Right to buy sales continue to outstrip replacements

13/09/2018

Councils have only been able to replace around one in three homes sold under right to buy, new figures have revealed today.

Council to bid for up to £150m to build 1,000 new homes

06/09/2018

Newham Council has announced plans to bid for up to £150m funding to build around 1,000 new council homes.

Brokenshire unveils £200m Right to Buy pilot

16/08/2018

The Government has launched a £200m pilot scheme to boost social home ownership.

Ready and able to build more council homes

14/08/2018

What role does a council have in tackling increasing private rental costs and low wages? Cllr Darren Rodwell is leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, explains.

Councils welcome possible reform of Right to Buy

14/08/2018

Town hall chiefs have welcomed a new consultation into how they are allowed to spend the money raised from Right to Buy sales.

Councils only able to replace one in four homes sold under right to buy

28/06/2018

Councils have only been able to replace 4,944 of the 11,465 homes sold under right to buy in 2017/18, new government figures have revealed.

Time to restructure Right to Buy?

18/06/2018

Neil Merrick finds out why councils are struggling to replace only a fraction of the homes sold under Right to Buy, and explores how the housing policy could be improved.

Ability to replace Right to Buy homes almost ‘eliminated’, council chiefs warn

11/06/2018

Local authority leaders have warned their ability to replace homes sold under Right to Buy (RTB) will be all but eliminated within five years without ‘major reform’.

Sadiq Khan announces plan to build 10,000 council houses

16/05/2018

The mayor of London today announced a ‘modern comeback for council housing’ with plans to build 10,000 new homes over the next four years.

Government commitment to replace homes sold through Right to Buy ‘in tatters’

03/04/2018

Whitehall has been blasted by the opposition as new figures reveal only one social home is being built for every three sold off under the Right to Buy scheme.

Only 4.3% of government housing subsidy spent on new homes

21/03/2018

More than 95% of the government’s housing subsidy was spent on housing benefit and support for mortgage interest, new analysis has revealed.

Councils warn Right to Buy discounts have reached £3.5bn

02/02/2018

Nearly £3.5bn in Right to Buy (RTB) discounts to council tenants over the past six years, new figures have revealed today.

More than 150,000 homes for social rent lost in five years

31/01/2018

More than 150,000 of the most affordable rented homes have been lost across England in just five years, new research has revealed.

Top 100: Our most popular local government stories of 2017

13/12/2017

From council pay to the Housing White Paper, here is a run-down of the 100 most popular stories on LocalGov during 2017.

More than 23,000 social homes were sold last year

24/11/2017

The number of properties sold by local authorities under the Right to Buy scheme has increased by 10% in the past year, new figures have revealed.

Right to Buy will ‘grind to a halt’ without reforms, councils warn

13/11/2017

Councils can only afford to replace a third of homes sold under Right to Buy putting the future of the scheme at risk, council leaders have warned today.

Right to Buy ‘devastating’ social housing stock, new figures reveal

28/06/2017

Council homes are being sold off almost three times faster than local authorities can replace them, research reveals.

Affordable homes not being replaced under Right to Buy warn Lib Dems

16/03/2017

Only one in five homes sold off under Right to Buy since 2012 have been replaced, Liberal Democrats have said today.

Wales considers abolishing Right to Buy

13/03/2017

The Welsh government has introduced legislation aimed at abolishing Right to Buy in order to protect its stock of social housing from further reduction.

Welsh council looking to suspend Right to Buy policy

13/02/2017

Right to Buy could be suspended in Cardiff for five years in a bid to protect the city’s social housing stock.

Give councils more freedom on housing decisions says think tank

17/11/2016

Councils should be given the freedom to decide how and where new housing can be delivered, a think tank has argued.

Cardiff considers suspending Right to Buy

07/11/2016

Right to Buy could be suspended in Cardiff, after the council outlined plans to protect its level of social housing stock.

Labour would scrap Right to Buy

26/09/2016

A Labour government would reverse the pay-to-stay policy and suspend Right to Buy, according to shadow housing minister, Teresa Pearse.

More than 56,000 households buy homes under revived Right to Buy

22/09/2016

Over 50,000 households have purchased a home in the last four years under the Government’s Right to Buy scheme, new figures show.

Councils call for urgent reform of Right to Buy rules

11/08/2016

Councils have called for an overhaul of Right to Buy rules, after figures showed they are struggling to build new homes to replace those sold off.

London council launches alternative to Right to Buy

01/07/2016

An innovative scheme launched by an east London council will enable tenants to buy a stake in their home while ensuring the local authority retains its housing stock.

New Right to Buy toolkit launched

29/06/2016

Whitehall has launched an online toolkit to help with in the increase in demand for council tenants buying their own properties, as the Welsh Government announces plans to scrap Right to Buy for social housing.

Right to Buy extension to cost councils £26m a year

04/05/2016

The average English council will need to pay £26m a year to fund the Government’s Right to Buy extension, housing charity warns.

Whitehall should be 'embarrassed' by PAC report

29/04/2016

Whitehall should be ‘embarrassed’ by findings of a public accounts committee (PAC) report into the extension of right to buy, according to committee’s chair. 

Right to buy amendment causes concern over forced sale of housing stock

07/04/2016

Councils could be forced to sell their housing stock by the secretary of state, after changes were made to the wording of the Housing and Planning Bill.

Construction must increase 'five-fold' to fulfil Right-to-Buy pledge, watchdog warns

16/03/2016

The building of homes to replace those sold off under Right-to-Buy (RtB) needs to increase 'five-fold' to meet the Governments promise of one-for-one replacement, a spending watchdog warns.

Council looks to suspend Right to Buy

15/03/2016

A Welsh council is looking to suspend its Right to Buy scheme for the next five years in order to protect its affordable housing stock.

Elderly hit hard by great British bungalow sell-off

04/03/2016

Bungalows, which are mostly occupied by sick and disabled elderly tenants, are almost three times more likely to be sold off in order to fund Right to Buy, a new study reveals.

Rise in social housing tenants planning to buy home

18/02/2016

More than half of local authority tenants who would like to get onto the property ladder intend to buy their current home, according to new figures published today.

Right to Buy discounts should be funded by Whitehall not councils, committee says

10/02/2016

Right to Buy (RTB) discounts for housing association tenants should be funded by central Government rather than through a ‘levy’ on local authorities, according to a local government committee.

Council offers £40,000 cash in place of Right to Buy discount

08/02/2016

A London council is offering housing tenants a £40,000 cash payment not to buy their council house in a bid to protect its housing stock.

Are Starter Homes a non-starter?

02/02/2016

Mike Brogan warns that the government's Starter Homes policy could exacerbate the housing crisis.

80,000 council homes could be lost by 2020, warn town hall chiefs

29/01/2016

Council leaders have warned that at least 80,000 social homes could be lost by the end of the decade.

Figures show 11,000 housing association tenants apply to buy home

11/12/2015

Nearly 200 housing association tenants every day are registering their interest to buy their property though the extended Right to Buy scheme, according to official figures.

Pilot opens for right to buy extension

07/12/2015

A pilot project offering housing association tenants a discount to buy their own home has begun in South Norfolk.

Spending Review: Osborne doubles housing budget

25/11/2015

The country’s ‘biggest affordable house building programme since the 1970s’ has been unveiled in today’s spending review by the chancellor.

Council suspends Right to Buy scheme

18/11/2015

A third Welsh council has opted to suspend the controversial Right to Buy scheme in a bid to cope with a shortage of social housing.

Right to Buy sales rise by 5%

13/11/2015

Latest figures show local authorities sold more than 12,300 homes through the Right to Buy scheme in the last year.

Thousands of council homes at risk from right to buy

15/10/2015

A new study by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) found that an estimated 7000 council houses a year could be lost when right-to-buy is extended to housing associations.

Healey accuses Government of doing a ‘back-room deal’ with housing associations

13/10/2015

The shadow housing minister, John Healey, has accused the Government of doing a ‘back-room deal’ with housing associations in an attempt to extend right-to-buy to their tenants.

Government signs Right to Buy extension agreement

08/10/2015

The Government has approved the voluntary deal put forward by housing associations to open up Right to Buy to 1.3m households.

Osborne outlines four-point infrastructure plan

05/10/2015

The chancellor has announced a four-point plan that, he claims, will change the way vital infrastructure projects are planned, determined and funded.

Extending Right to Buy to housing association tenants will cost £6bn

05/10/2015

Extending the Right to Buy scheme to housing association tenants will cost £6bn over the next four years, according to a new analysis.

Housing associations vote in favour of voluntary Right to Buy deal

05/10/2015

The majority of housing associations have voted in favour of making a voluntary deal with Government on extending its Right to Buy policy.

Councils to 'reconsider' links with HAs over Right to Buy deal

02/10/2015

Councils have urged housing associations not to make a deal with the Government over plans to extend Right to Buy.

Councils should have been consulted on Right to Buy agreement warn housing bodies

02/10/2015

The National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) and the Association of Retained Council Housing (ARCH) have expressed their disappointment that the government did not consult them in relation to the voluntary agreement to extend the Right to Buy (RTB) to housing association tenants.

Housing chiefs offer voluntary Right to Buy deal

25/09/2015

The Government may avoid having to use legislation to extend Right to Buy, after housing associations have put forward their own voluntary proposals for reforming the scheme.

Councils warned to be upfront about Right to Buy restrictions

03/09/2015

A council has come under fire after it failed to inform two homeowners about restrictions affecting their ex-council properties.

Councils face ‘huge’ rise in Right to Buy scams

28/07/2015

Right to Buy fraud has more than doubled across London in the past year, with boroughs detecting scams worth almost £26m.

Budget 2015: Osborne clamps down on high earners in social housing

08/07/2015

High earners living in social housing will no longer be entitled to reduced rents, under plans announced in today’s Emergency Budget.

Cameron outlines new housing measures

06/07/2015

The Government has confirmed it will be pushing ahead with plans to extend the controversial Right to Buy policy.

Mayor under pressure to probe Right to Buy impact on London

02/07/2015

The mayor of London has been urged to investigate the implications of the Right to Buy extension by The London Assembly, who warn it will prevent councils from delivering affordable housing.

Housing chief blasts Right to Buy expansion as ‘dangerously bad’

12/06/2015

The chief of UK housing associations has warned Right to Buy expansion is a ‘dangerously bad’ policy that would hamper national ambition.

Kerslake hits out at Right to Buy plans

01/06/2015

The government’s extension of Right to Buy has been branded ‘wrong in principle and practice’ by the former head of the civil service.

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