Governments 'right to buy' pledge fails

The pledge was made at the same time as the announcement of plans to revamp it's ‘right to buy’ scheme, originally introduced in the 80s.

Between 2012-14, 16,596 affordable homes were sold while just 3,141 new affordable home developments began, according to figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) which have come under fire from housing charity Shelter.

The Telegraph reported last week that key Conservative Party figures are also considering including a 2015 manifesto commitment to extend ‘right to buy’ to housing association tenants.

That idea has already been criticised by the National Housing Federation in England, which says the existing scheme “has already shown that selling off homes with huge discounts makes them very difficult to replace”.

Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb told The Guardian the “fact that right to buy has failed to deliver the like-for-like replacement that was promised is yet another massive blow for those on ordinary incomes who need somewhere affordable to live. With millions of families struggling to meet sky-high rents in the private rented sector, the next government’s priority has to be building more affordable homes, not selling off the few we have left.”