London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Boris Johnson pondering right to buy for housing association tenants

Boris Johnson pondering right to buy for housing association tenants

Critics say Thatcher-style policy for England would only worsen shortage of affordable housing
Boris Johnson is considering reviving Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme by giving people the chance to purchase the properties they rent from housing associations at a discounted price.

The idea, designed to help “generation rent” and prove the government is still committed to its Conservative principles amid unrest from some backbenchers, is being worked up by officials in the No 10 policy unit, with reports that up to 2.5 million households could become eligible to buy their homes at a discount of up to 70%.

But housing experts warned the policy amounted to the sell-off of affordable homes during the cost-of-living crisis and called instead for an increase in housebuilding. Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, criticised the “hare-brained idea” as “the opposite of what the country needs”.

Ministers are also considering whether to allow banks to take into account taxpayer money received by those who claim housing benefit when they are seeking a mortgage.

To help boost housing stocks, the government is contemplating axing the rule that developers must build a set number of affordable homes in favour of making them pay into an infrastructure fund that councils can then use to fund their own projects.

Housing reforms have fallen by the wayside after the government backed down in the face of a huge backlash from Tory MPs over changes to planning rules.

The Daily Telegraph cited a source saying Johnson was “very excited” about rejuvenating Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy, with the roughly 2.5 million households living in housing association property becoming eligible to buy their homes.

Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow communities secretary, called the plan “desperate” and accused the “tired government” of repackaging a plan from 2015.

She added: “Millions of families in the private rented sector with low savings and facing sky high-costs and rising bills, need far more ambitious plans to help them buy their own home.”

Right to buy became one of the legacy decisions of Thatcher’s era and allowed council tenants to purchase their properties at a discounted rate. Critics, however, rounded on the policy, which they said would only worsen the country’s shortage of affordable housing.

Shelter said that in the last three months of 2021, nearly 34,000 households in England became homeless, more than 8,000 of them families with children.

Neate said: “There could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes. The living cost crisis means more people are on the brink of homelessness than homeownership …

“Right to buy has already torn a massive hole in our social housing stock as less than 5% of the homes sold off have ever been replaced. These half-baked plans have been tried before and they’ve failed.”

More than 1 million households are stuck on social housing waiting lists in England according to the charity, and at a time when bills were skyrocketing, Neate said the government “should be building more social homes, so we have more not less”.

The housing expert Henry Pryor suggested the Conservatives were trying to bribe voters with a taxpayer-subsidised sale of housing association stock. About half the homes previously bought under right to buy are let out for higher rents in the private sector, with thousands of rents being subsidised by the taxpayer, he said.

There were long waiting lists for social housing because the government had failed to replace the previous homes sold off under right to buy, he added. “It’s social gerrymandering, tempting people with a chance to make a few quid at the expense of the rest of us and, more importantly, those who really need affordable homes.”

In 2015, the idea of selling off swathes of housing association properties was resurrected by David Cameron’s government. At the time, Johnson was London mayor and was lukewarm about the policy.

He told the London assembly: “One of the issues … is that it would be potentially extremely costly to this body. We would have to make up the difference. Housing associations are private bodies, as we all know. It would involve massive subsidies. We would need to get the funds to support that.”

A housing association right-to-buy scheme was piloted in 2018 in the Midlands and the Conservatives’ last election manifesto said they would consider new pilots, but no more have been pursued.

Critics have said many of the decent housing association properties have already been sold off and the remaining ones would not be a tempting purchase to current tenants. “They need some new ideas,” one Tory source complained.

Given the cost of living crisis, it is also possible that prices for housing association properties remain too high for many struggling households.

A government spokesperson said: “We want everyone to be given the chance to own a home of their own, and we keep all options to increase home ownership under review.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×