190 social homes were sold through the policy in Barnet between 2019-20 and 2023-24 reports Clara Margotin, Data Reporter

An aerial view of a collection of tower blocks — Nearly two million social houses have been sold since the implementation of Right to Buy in 1980 – (Credit – Radar)

Almost 200 social homes in Barnet were sold through the Right to Buy scheme over the last five years, new figures show.

It comes as the government considers reforming the scheme to help councils better protect their social housing stock and ensure more than a million households stuck on the waiting list can access social rent.

A homelessness charity said changes to the Right to Buy scheme “are a critical step” to tackle homelessness and social housing waiting lists, but warned “alone it will not end the housing emergency”.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show 190 social homes were sold through the Right to Buy policy in Barnet between 2019-20 and 2023-24.

Of those, 28 were sold last year – down from 66 the year before.

Relaxing the rules of the scheme has allowed almost 108,300 local authority-owned homes to be sold through Right to Buy over the last decade, meaning nearly two million social houses have been sold since the implementation of the policy in 1980.

The demolition and sale of social homes through other means, as well as a failure to replace the homes lost has resulted in the loss of councils’ social housing stock.

More than 46,700 local authority-owned homes were sold through the scheme across England in the past five years.

It included 7,065 sales last year, which was significantly down from 11,184 the year before, and the lowest figure in 11 years excluding 2020-21 which was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

However, despite this drop, the sale and demolition of social housing resulted in the net loss of 650 social rent homes in 2023-24.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “As homelessness soars and over 1.3 million households are stuck waiting for a social home, it is absurd that we continue to lose more social homes than we build.

“As the biggest driver of social home losses to date, the reforms to Right to Buy discounts are a critical step – but let’s be clear, alone it will not end the housing emergency.”

Neate called on the government to also ensure investment to build 90,000 social rent homes a year for the next 10 years is included in the next Spending Review.

An MHCLG spokesperson said: “We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory, but we will turn the tide by delivering the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.

“Too many social homes have been sold off and not replaced and that’s why we have brought forward overdue reforms to the Right to Buy scheme to help councils better protect housing stock and scale up delivery of new social homes.

“We have also injected an extra £500 million this year to deliver thousands of new affordable and social homes, alongside giving the sector the certainty it needs by introducing a long-term rent settlement to invest in new social housing.”

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