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Right to Buy sales plunge 43% to eight-year low
Right to Buy sales fell 43% year on year last summer, hitting the lowest level since 2013.
Local authorities in England sold 1,548 homes under the Right to Buy between July and September 2020, down from 2,727 in the same quarter in 2019.
A government data release said the sharp decline “may be due in large part to the lockdown restrictions introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Home moves and sales were frozen for nearly two months last spring, but the figures published today represent a continued slowdown of sales despite the market being reopened from July.
Between April and June, when the freeze came in, there were 1,549 sales in total – one more than in the following three-month period.
The government told councils that statutory timescales associated with Right to Buy sales should still apply during the pandemic.
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Replacement starts on site and acquisitions for homes sold through the policy also halved compared with 2019, falling from 1,404 to 714 in the same quarter for 2020.
This is a slight uptick from the 694 starts in the first quarter of 2020, when there were widespread construction site closures.
Local authorities in England received £137.2m from Right to Buy sales, down 40% from £228m in the same quarter of 2019, reflecting the lower number of sales.
The total value of Right to Buy receipts collected by councils for the first half of 2020/21 was £275.1m, compared with £436.7m in the same period of 2019/20.
The average receipt per dwelling sold in the quarter was £88,657, the second highest average receipt since recording started in 2012/13 and 6% greater than the second quarter in 2019.
The release from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Receipts are sensitive to the type, size and location of the properties sold, as well as their discount percentage, and therefore the average receipt per dwelling is likely to fluctuate.”
Under the Right to Buy, council tenants are able to purchase their homes at a significant discount, worth up to £84,200 across England and £112,300 in London.
Councils have long called for reform of the policy, which they say inhibits them from building new homes.
The discounts were hiked dramatically under David Cameron’s government in 2012, with a promise that additional homes sold off as a result of the change would be replaced on a one-for-one basis.
Today’s release showed that replacements are now lag nearly 10,000 homes behind that pledge, with 31,661 delivered since 2012/13 against a 41,541 target.
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