Newly-built council homes to be exempt from Right to Buy for 35 years

Matthew Pennycook has announced that newly-built council homes will be exempt from the Right to Buy for 35 years.

The housing minister, in a statement to parliament today, confirmed further reforms to the policy in a bid to ‘protect much-needed social housing stock’. 

The 35-year exemption goes further than the ‘10’ or ’20 years’ suggested by the government in a consultation paper last year.

Pennycook said the government will also increase the length of time someone needs to have been a tenant to qualify for Right to Buy from three to 10 years.

Discounts will be reformed so they start at 5% of the property value, rising by 1% for every extra year an individual is a secure tenant up to the maximum of 15% of the property value or the cash discount cap (whichever is lower).

Pennycook said government will “legislate when parliamentary time allows” to bring the reforms into force.

It will also immediately reform the receipts regime and extend existing flexibilities on spending Right to Buy receipts indefinitely

Councils will continue to be able to retain the share of the receipts that was previously returned to HM Treasury. In addition, from 2026-27, councils will be permitted to combine receipts with grant funding to fund delivery.

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Pennycook said: “To better protect much-needed social housing stock, boost councils’ capacity, and enable them to once again build social homes at scale, we need to further reform Right to Buy.”

The latest reforms follow the reduction in maximum Right to Buy cash discounts announced in the Autumn Budget to pre-2012 levels and the decision to allow councils to keep 100% of Right to Buy receipts