Since 1980, more than two million homes have been sold through the scheme in England.
In fact, about 40% of England’s council housing stock has been sold through Right to Buy. Most of those sales took place in the early years, says Prof Rebecca Tunstall, a housing academic at the University of York and London School of Economics. At the time, Labour was vehemently opposed to Thatcher’s plans. Yet many of its own voters went on to benefit from them.
Labour now argues that not enough of those two million homes were replaced. Sir Keir Starmer’s government restricted the scheme, including by heavily reducing the maximum discount that councils were allowed to give tenants.
And now Burnham is removing the right to buy entirely from any new-build social home. The measures are included in a bill currently making its way through Parliament. The government says that before Labour’s various restrictions on the scheme, England was projected to see a net loss of 26,000 council homes over the next decade. Now there will be a net gain of 18,000 homes over the same period, it calculates.
This opens up a political divide: some opposition parties, like the Conservatives and Reform UK, say they would keep or even extend the scheme.
For those who became homeowners, Right to Buy turned a dream into reality.
Barbara Stevens, now 80, bought her two-bedroom council flat in Kentish Town, north London, through Right to Buy for around £35,000. Now mortgage-free, she estimates it could be worth between £600,000 and £700,000.