Right to Buy Extension: Proposed Changes
Right to Buy was a scheme introduced through the Housing Act in 1980. The scheme allows tenants living in social housing to purchase their property at a lower price. The lower price is subsidised by the Government to help council tenants onto the property ladder.
A Right to Buy extension was proposed in 2022 by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson announced an extension of Right to Buy housing association tenants. However, in 2024, the Government axed the extension.
On the 2nd of July 2025, the Government published its response to the Right to Buy consultation. These changes aim to increase the housing supply while helping people who have lived in their properties for many years buy their home.
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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