Right to Buy Extension: Proposed Changes
The Right to Buy: 2026 Policy Landscape
The Right to Buy (RTB) scheme, established by the Housing Act 1980, originally enabled council tenants to purchase their homes at a significant discount. However, in 2025 and 2026, the scheme underwent the most restrictive reforms in its 45-year history to protect the dwindling supply of social housing.
The End of Expansion
While a 2022 proposal suggested extending Right to Buy to all housing association tenants, the government formally axed this extension in 2024. The current policy focus has shifted entirely away from expansion and toward "fairness and sustainability."
Key Reforms in Force (2025–2026)
Following the July 2025 consultation response, several major changes are now central to any RTB enquiry:
- Increased Eligibility: The minimum time a tenant must live in public sector housing before becoming eligible to buy has increased from 3 years to 10 years.
- Reduced Discounts: Maximum cash discounts were slashed in November 2024 to pre-2012 levels (ranging from £16,000 to £38,000 depending on the region). New rules now set the starting discount at just 5%, rising by 1% per year, capped at 15% of the property value.
- New-Build Exemptions: To encourage council housebuilding, any social home built after 2025 is exempt from the Right to Buy for a period of 35 years.
- Tighter Resale Rules: The "repayment window" (the period in which you must pay back your discount if you sell the property) has been doubled from 5 years to 10 years. Additionally, local authorities now hold a "right of first refusal" in perpetuity.
Summary of Changes in England
Pre-2024 | 2026 Rules | |
Eligibility Period | 3 Years | 10 Years |
Max Cash Discount | Up to £102,400 in England, or £136,000 in London. | £16,000 – £38,000 |
Max % Discount | 70% | 15% |
Repayment Period | 5 years | 10 years |
New Build Status | Immediately Eligible | Exempt for 35 years |
Has eligibility in the Right to Buy scheme changed?
Eligibility would be stricter with the new reform due to an increase in time lived in the property. Previously, tenants who had lived three years as secure tenants in a council home were eligible to purchase their home. The Government propose to increase it to ten years.
The future legislation is intended to safeguard those who have yet to buy their first property. The Government has designed these reforms to stop people who currently own a property or who have used the scheme to buy a home in the past from using RTB, barring mitigating circumstances.
Will the costs change in Right to Buy?
The costs to buy would change with the Right to Buy reform. The base percentage for the new discount is 5% starting at ten years, increasing by 1% each year of council tenancy until the maximum of 15% has been reached. Previously, houses and flats had a different discount percentage. This would be altered under the new reforms to have houses and flats under the same discount.
In 2024, the Government slashed the maximum discount a tenant can receive from £102,400-£136,400 to £16,000-£38,000. "This will ensure that longer standing tenants gain a superior discount whilst better aligning the percentage discount regime to the new cash caps." - GOV.UK
Local authorities argued that the discount percentage should be assigned locally. Since November 2024, the maximum cash discount levels have been set regionally to better take into account local housing markets and, in particular, the necessity to protect London’s housing stock given the significant levels of housing need in the capital. – GOV.UK
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Protecting housing stock
The one-for-one Right to Buy replacement could be on the chopping block. This was a pledge that for every home sold under the Right to Buy scheme, a new affordable property would be built. This should allow local authorities to have a tighter grip on providing affordable social housing.
The reform states that agreements with local authorities will be amended, to ensure a larger portion of sale proceeds is used to build more properties. In addition, we will extend the existing flexibilities in spending receipts indefinitely and, from 2026-27, will permit councils to combine Right to Buy receipts with grant funding for affordable housing to accelerate delivery of replacement homes. - GOV.UK
To further protect the new homes being built from being purchased immediately, the Government also plans to: exempt newly built social and affordable housing from the Right to Buy for 35 years - GOV.UK. This will ensure good quality housing stock is available to council tenants before being sold into private ownership.
What is the timeline for Right to Buy reform proposals?
There is no strict timeline for when the proposals will come into full effect. However, changes such as the maximum discount began on November 21, 2024. As for the other proposals, the Government announced its intentions to implement the proposals when Parliamentary time allows.
On top of the primary proposals, the Government labelled what they intend to explore next:
- Better fraud protection with the goal of cracking down on third-party applications.
- Reforms to the cost floor to reduce the discount, if the council have spent more on buying, building or repairing and maintaining the property than the current market value. This will protect investments in existing property.
- The current timeline for processing Right to Buy applications.
- How the Right to Buy scheme applies to rural areas.
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