Source · Select Committees · Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee
Recommendation 26
26
The Government must keep a careful watch on the rate of replacements.
Recommendation
The Government must keep a careful watch on the rate of replacements. If, despite these reforms, replacements are still below a one-for-one rate, the Government must intervene further. The Government should fully disaggregate its quarterly Right to Buy data by tenure for sales and replacements, and publish a full review of the Right to Buy scheme by the end of this Parliament, assessing a full range of options for its future. (Paragraph 135) Building more social housing 57
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government is committed to helping people achieve their ambition for home ownership where this is the right option for them; and the Right to Buy forms an essential part of this commitment. The scheme has helped over 2 million families achieve their dream of owning their home, and the 2019 manifesto reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to the Right to Buy. The Government has closely monitored the rate of Right to Buy replacements and will continue to do so. The Government is conscious that, while the overall number of homes available for social rent has increased, local authorities have not been building enough replacements to match the pace of Right to Buy sales; and the commitment that every additional home sold would be replaced on a one-for-one basis nationally is not being met. As set out in the response to recommendation 2, the department already publishes a wide range of data on local authority stock. It may be possible to collect data on the last tenure of a property prior to its sale but this would involve a likely New Burden for local authorities. Data on the tenure of replacements is likely to be more difficult to collect as the tenure could change before units are completed or before they are rented. Units may also change tenure through time as tenants change, which is likely to lead to the data being less reliable. In the receipts consultation, the Government has proposed options for flexibilities to enable local authorities to build more replacement homes. In addition, the consultation sought views on introducing a broader measurement that took into account all the social and affordable housing that had been sold or lost against the total number of additional social and affordable homes provided, so that it is clear whether there has been an increase rather than loss overall. This would include all properties sold under the Right to Buy, rather than solely additional sales above the baseline forecast in 2012; together with all new social housing, regardless of how this had been funded. The Government is considering its response to the receipts consultation which will be published in due course.