Council stock reduces by 10% in seven years

The latest figures show the number of council-owned homes dropped by nearly 10% between 2009 and 2015. There were 1.6 million council-owned properties in 2015, a 1.5% decline on figures from 2014 and a 9.7% drop from 2009. The DCLG figures only date back to 2009.

John Bibby, chief executive of the Association of Retained Council Housing, said the decrease in council housing is of “concern” because councils’ housing waiting lists are growing.

He said councils are questioning whether they can replace stock in the context of the Housing and Planning Bill, which calls for councils to pay government a levy based on their higher-value empty stock to fund homes sold by housing associations through Right to Buy.

He added: “We argued for a renaissance in council housing but the reality is it’s a case of hoping that once all the dust settles that you can genuinely at least replace those homes sold.”

Council homes have been sold through Right to Buy and some have been demolished as part of regeneration projects.

Sheffield Council lost 350 homes between 2014 and 2015. A spokesperson for the council said 288 homes were sold through Right to Buy and the council had “de-commissioned” a number of homes as part of a regeneration project.

She added the council will be providing 1,000 extra homes by 2019/20, some of which will be as a result of the council buying back properties sold through Right to Buy. Inside Housing previously reported 66 councils have bought back properties sold through Right to Buy.

Birmingham City Council sold 400 homes last year and demolished 221. A spokesperson said the council has an “extensive housebuilding programme” and recently completed its 2,000^th house.

Despite the drop-off in council homes, the overall number of homes has increased, from 23.4 million in 2014 to 23.5 million last year.

The number of homes owned by housing associations increased from 2.4 million in 2014 to 2.5 million in 2015.