- Angela Rayner may scrap the Right to Buy initiative
- The plan faces criticism for contributing to a £2.2 billion council budget gap
- Debate on housing reforms linked to Labour’s broader housing policies
Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, is prepared to potentially scrap the Right to Buy initiative, which allowed her to buy her council property, as local authorities face mounting pressure to close a £2.2 billion budget gap.
Rayner is set to survey whether to scrap the landmark plan introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980.
According to the Telegraph, the deputy prime minister attended an ‘urgent meeting’ with local authorities last month to discuss housing reforms, but it is unclear whether specific measures were mentioned.
Right to Buy permitted council house occupants to purchase their homes from local authorities at significantly reduced prices.
Rayner profited from the initiative, purchasing her former council house in Stockport, Manchester, for £79,000 at a 25% discount.
She eventually sold the property for over £50,000 more than she paid.
The announcement comes after more than 100 local governments campaigned for the project to be abolished in favour of new council homes.
The analysis, commissioned by Southwark Council, stated that the strategy was causing a ‘£2.2 billion hole in local authority accounts and increasing the country’s housing crisis.
According to the research, Right to Buy significantly underestimated the impact of maintenance expenses, changing government policy, and economic shocks on the shortfall, which was severe ‘a challenge for the sustainability of England’s council housing.’
Shadow housing minister Kemi Badenoch told the Telegraph that it is ‘no coincidence’ that Labour ‘wants to undermine one of Baroness Thatcher’s most revolutionary ideas.
“Invest in your future with Webull UK – get started with free shares.”
She said, ‘If Angela Rayner were genuine about improving people’s lives, she would find methods to expand housebuilding rather than reducing a programme that gets people on the housing ladder and gives them a stake in their communities.’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves promised to scrap planning laws in a bid to ‘ rebuild Britain‘ just days after Labour won power.
“Planning reform has become a byword for political timidity in the face of vested interests and a graveyard of economic ambition,” she stated in one of her first speeches as Chancellor.
‘Our old planning system causes too many critical projects to become bogged down in years and years of red tape before shovels are ever placed in the ground.’
The system requires a new signal. This is the signal.’
