Right to Buy Back scheme has returned 1,500+ homes to public ownership, Mayor claims

More than 1,500 homes have returned to public ownership under London’s ‘right-to-buy-back’ scheme, the capital’s mayor Sadiq Khan has said.

This has allocated funds to help boroughs buy 1,577 homes as council-owned accommodation for homeless families or for letting at social rents.

So far, 14 boroughs have been allocated £152m in all to buy homes for conversion to affordable housing.

The programme has also been used to help councils support the arrival of Afghan refugees and the boroughs of Hounslow and Islington have bought 39 homes for them.

Mr Khan said he had made £1m in revenue funding available to encouarge uptake of ‘right-to-buy-back’ and a further £4m to help boroughs unlock land for council homes.

He said that since right-to-buy was introduced in the 1980 Housing Act, more than 300,000 London council homes had been sold but only 14,000 replacement council homes had been provided from right-to-buy receipts in London over the last decade.

The mayor said right-to-buy sales had declined in recent years, but 40% of homes sold went to private market rent – not to owner occupation as originally intended - and in some cases were rented back as homelessness accommodation to the council that was forced to sell the home in the first place  

Other mayoral initiatives in council housing have included the £1bn Building Council Homes for Londoners programme and the £10m Homebuilding Capacity Fund. Mr Khan said these various programmes should deliver 20,000 new council homes by 2024.

The mayor said: “For more than 40 years, London’s precious council homes have been disappearing into the private sector, often never to be replaced. As Mayor I have maintained a relentless focus on stemming the tide and replenishing London’s social housing stock.

“I am proud that, thanks to my interventions, we have brought council homebuilding back up to levels not seen since the 1970s and I’m hugely encouraged by the enthusiasm I see from boroughs across London for building new council homes and using my right-to buy-back scheme to return homes to public ownership.”

Mark Smulian