Labour has been accused of launching an attack on aspiration by restricting the Right to Buy.
Ministers are stopping newly built council houses being sold off for 35 years under major changes to Margaret Thatcher’s flagship policy that helped millions get on the housing ladder.
They are also requiring tenants to have lived in social homes for a decade – up from the current three years – before they are eligible to buy them.
In addition, the maximum discount available is being slashed. Buyers will only be able to get whichever is lower of 15 per cent of the property’s value or a ‘cash cap’ of £16,000 to £38,000, down from 70 per cent or the cash cap currently.
The Government claims the changes – to be ‘brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows’ – will make the scheme fairer by ensuring it is only available to people with roots in their local communities.
It is also hoped the reforms will help protect England’s housing stock, as figures show that only 2 per cent of properties sold off under Right to Buy have been replaced.
And the Housing Secretary rejected demands by the Greens to scrap Right to Buy completely, which Labour said would ‘rip away opportunity from working-class council tenants’.
Steve Reed said: ‘Under the Tories, dodgy landlords could buy up council homes on the cheap and pocket massive incomes from rent. Labour is calling time on that racket.
Margaret Thatcher handing over the council house deeds to one of the first families to benefit from her Right to Buy policy
‘While the hypocrite Green Party block new homes as a hobby, this Labour government is bringing back fairness to the housing system.
‘We’re building the social and affordable homes people deserve and we’re reserving Right to Buy only for those with real roots in their area. That means local homes locked in for local people.’
But the Tories said it was an attack on ambition – and pointed out that Labour is on course to miss its target of building 1.5million new homes by 2029 in order to tackling the housing crisis.
Sir James Cleverly, who is being forced to move out of his rented constituency home because of Labour’s new law intended to protect tenants from no-fault evictions, said: ‘Devoid of ideas and engulfed in sleaze, Labour have resorted to reheating announcements from last year in a desperate attempt to distract from the crisis surrounding the Prime Minister.
‘Alongside this attack on ambition, taxes on housing and axing support for home ownership, Labour are failing abysmally to deliver the new homes they have promised. The Government’s own figures show they are going to miss their targets by miles, all while more and more migrants arrive in the UK and claim social housing. And ministers are refusing to tell us when the money for their so-called Affordable Homes Programme will become available.’
Reform’s Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said: ‘Right to Buy gave millions of working-class Brits the chance to own their own home we all know why Labour are unwinding it – it’s because they’re determined to keep handing out precious council houses to migrants.
‘Reform UK would end that and ensure only British nationals qualify for council homes.’
Right to Buy was introduced during Mrs Thatcher’s first term as Prime Minister and has led to as many as 2million council houses being bought by their tenants.
Michael Heseltine, then Environment Secretary, told the Commons in 1980 that the scheme was designed ‘first, to give people what they want, and, secondly, to reverse the trend of ever-increasing dominance of the State over the life of the individual’.
The new reforms to Right to Buy were drawn up by Angela Rayner when she was Housing Secretary in 2024.
However she faced accusations of hypocrisy as she herself had used the scheme to obtain a 25 per cent discount when she purchased her then home in Stockport for just £79,000 in 2007.
