News from Len Duvall OBE: Lewisham Right to Buy more than 3 times replacements

Council homes in Lewisham sold under Right to Buy more than three times the number of replacements started, over the last nine years

Over the last nine years, the number of council homes in Lewisham sold under the Right to Buy has been more than three times the number of replacement homes started, according to the latest Government figures. During the period between January 2012 and January 2021, there were 707 Right to Buy sales compared to 187 Right to Buy homes started in the borough. Responding to these figures, local London Assembly Member, Len Duvall AM, said that with the current level of Government funding and devolved powers over the scheme, local authorities can’t “fight back against the tide of council housing being lost to the private market”.

The Right to Buy policy was introduced in 1980, and gives council tenants the opportunity to purchase the home they are renting at a discount of the market price.

In December 2011, the Government announced a revamp of the scheme, but concerns have since been raised that a significant proportion of Right to Buy homes have been snapped up by private landlords.

In 2019, research conducted by the Labour Group of the London Assembly found that around 54,000 homes in London sold through the policy were being privately let.

Mr Duvall has levelled criticism at the Government’s failure to financially back councils to fulfil its national aim to ensure that every home sold under Right to Buy would be replaced by a new affordable home on a one-for-one basis.

The local London Assembly Member is backing recommendations made by the Communities and Local Government Committee that local authorities should receive 100 per cent of Right to Buy receipts and that legislation should be put in place to prevent Right to Buy homes from being privately let within five years of purchase. He is also supporting calls made by the Local Government Association, that Right to Buy discounts should be set locally by councils.

Earlier this month, the Mayor announced a new City Hall ‘Right to Buy Back scheme’, which will financially support councils to reclaim some of the housing stock it has lost to the policy. Alongside this, the Mayor is also kickstarting the supply of 10,000 new council homes in the capital.

However, GLA analysis shows that City Hall needs around seven times the amount of funding it currently receives from Central Government to meet the scale of demand for affordable housing in London.

The latest Government figures reveal that between April 2020 to March 2021, more homes for social rent were started in the capital under City Hall than the rest of country put together under the delivery of the Government-backed body, Homes England.

Local London Assembly Member, Len Duvall AM, said:

“The Right to Buy policy in its current form is unworkable when we are facing a deep housing crisis.

“These stark figures expose the Government’s abject failure to replace council homes sold under the policy.

“Despite the progress being made by City Hall on bolstering the supply of council homes in London, the current level of funding it receives from the Government is wholly inadequate.

“If we are going to fight back against the tide of council housing being lost to the private market, Ministers must urgently come to the table ahead of the next Comprehensive Spending Review to put this right and devolve more of the Right to Buy scheme to councils to manage”.