56,000 households helped to purchase home through Right to Buy scheme

Since 2012, over 56,000 households have been helped with buying a home through government’s Right to Buy scheme.

Figures released yesterday (22 September 2016) show the Right to Buy scheme has helped 56,000 households purchase a home, and more than 312,000 households have now benefitted from government-backed home ownership schemes including Right to Buy, Help to Buy and Help to Buy: Shared Ownership since 2010.

The new figures show that in the three months to June, over 3,500 households were bought under the Right to Buy scheme, a 21% increase from the same time last year.

Councils received £283M from sales of homes – a 27% increase for the same quarter last year- which will be re-invested in new homes.

Housing and Planning Minister Gavin Barwell, said: “From London to Leeds, Right to Buy plays an important part in building a country that works for everyone, helping thousands of people become homeowners for the first time.

“And we’re determined to replace the additional homes sold on a one-for-one basis, nationally – providing new affordable homes for rent for those who need them.”

Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Sandwell in the West Midlands, Southwark, Greenwich, Nottingham, Newham, Leicester and Barking and Dagenham are the top 10 places taking up Right to By.

However, data from the National Audit Office say that the number of new homes created under the scheme is nowhere near the amount needed to deliver its headline “one for one” promise, with a fivefold increase needed to keep pace with homes sold in 2014-2015.

New data from the Department for Communities and Local Government reveals that the number of homes started or acquired by local authorities in England between April and June this year fell by 41% on the previous quarter.

A total of 422 new homes were either begun or acquired, down from 715 in the previous quarter.

There were 3,362 right-to-buy sales, a slight increase on 3,276.

Around half of the total first-quarter sales were made by 104 local authorities that recorded no starts at all, while just five authorities accounted for 41% of all starts or acquisitions between them.

The NAO said: “To meet the target of replacing the roughly 8,512 homes sold in 2014-15 by the end of 2017-18 would require quarterly housing starts to reach around 2,130, a fivefold increase on recent figures of approximately 420 per quarter.

“One-for-one replacement does not necessarily mean like-for-like: replacement properties can be a different size, and built in a different area, compared to those that have been sold.”

 

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