Amanda Martin MP welcomes major regulations that will stop new council homes being sold off for 35 years to help restore fairness to the system for locals.
After consulting on changes last year, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed MP, has confirmed that the Labour will reform the Right to Buy scheme to ensure new local housing stocks are protected for the long-term.
Previously, social and council homes have been consistently sold off on the cheap, meaning some landlords have got rich from renting out former council homes which the taxpayer had paid to build.
More than a third of social homes that have been sold off in the last decade have not been replaced, and since Right to Buy was introduced, around 2% of the two million homes sold off have been replaced, fuelling the housing crisis.
Over recent decades, the housing benefit bill has risen almost sixfold in real terms in recent decades, while record numbers of families are stuck in temporary accommodation.
This announcement means tenants must now live in their social or council home for at least ten years before they’re eligible to buy the property. That will restore fairness by ensuring the Right to Buy scheme is only available to long-term residents with roots in their local community.
Labour is delivering a programme of mass council housebuilding backed by a record £39 billion of investment into social and affordable housing.
That has seen council housebuilding already hit the highest level in nearly 40 years – with more than 10,000 council homes build in 2024-25.
Labour’s record investment, new funding flexibilities, and reform of Right to Buy will build on this progress whilst backing people with roots in their community who deserve the chance to buy their long-term place of residence.
Amanda Martin, MP for Portsmouth North, said: “In the past, Portsmouth’s social and council homes, which have been paid for by the taxpayer, have been sold off cheaply for profit by landlords.
“We have a housing crisis in our city. Every week, in my postbag or when I knock on doors, I hear from young people still living with mum and dad in their 30s, from people desperately trying to campaign against a new HMO popping up, or from domestic abuse survivors fleeing and having to fight to get a home. This Government is tackling this head-on: getting Britain building again, creating jobs, and delivering 1.5 million homes.
“I welcome new measures that will restore fairness to the Right to Buy scheme by ensuring it is only available to people with long-term community roots, rather than opportunists.”
Steve Reed MP, Labour’s Housing Secretary, said: “Under the tories, landlords could buy up council homes on the cheap and pocket massive incomes from rent. Labour is calling time on that racket.
“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.”
