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Right to Buy sales of council housing stock have fallen to their lowest level since 2012/13, official figures have revealed.
Councils sold 11,059 properties under Right to Buy in the year to March 2019, according to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) figures. This is the lowest level since 2012/13, when 5,944 sales were registered.
Sales under the controversial policy hit a low during the financial crisis, but picked up in 2012 after the government changed purchase incentives, including increasing the cap on the Right to Buy discount to £75,000.
However, sales have never reached anywhere near their early and mid-1980 heights.
MHCLG also revealed that the number of the Right to Buy applications to councils fell 4% to 26,250 in the year to March 2019, compared to the prior year.
Right to Buy sales of housing associations properties also fell, coming down 11% on the previous year at 3,776. This figure includes the preserved Right to Buy and Voluntary Right to Buy that involves housing association stock.
Voluntary Right to Buy for housing association tenants was introduced in 2016 as a small-scale pilot before being widened to the Midlands last year.
In total, 19,389 social homes were sold in the year to March 2019, a 12% fall on the previous year. Three-quarters of all sales were Right to Buy.
In its manifesto, the Conservative Party has vowed to extend the Right to Buy for housing association tenants to further regions. Last month, it also announced plans for a ‘shared ownership’ Right to Buy option for housing association tenants that would allow residents to buy up to 10% of their homes. However, the party’s manifesto failed to mention this policy.
Labour had planned to offer private tenants a Right to Buy rented properties at a discount. But the plan was subsequently dropped, amid reports that it would be unworkable.