The deputy prime minister has told the BBC she wants the government’s Right to Buy housing scheme to continue but that it needed to be “fairer” to the taxpayer.
Angela Rayner insisted she is committed to keeping it, as it was important that social tenants were able to buy the homes they had lived in for a long time.
She told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme a consultation would review the rules after she said the previous Tory government had allowed “huge discounts” to be made quicker.
Rayner said it was “fair” that someone should be allowed to buy the home they have lived in their home a long time but that this “has to be levelled against replacing that stock.”
Since October 1980, council tenants have been able to buy their homes at a discount, which now stands at a maximum of 70% – depending on the length of the tenancy – or £80,900 across England and £108,000 in London boroughs (whichever is lower).
Speaking ahead of Labour’s party conference in Liverpool, Rayner said: “If you have lived in a house for a very long time and you have been paying rent, that is your home, that is where you raise your children and I don’t believe you should not have the right to buy.”
Rayner said she believes there has to be a “balance” as well.
“The changes the previous government made has made it a lot easier with a huge discount for people to buy the social housing and we just cannot replace them.
“Therefore I have started a consultation because I believe that we should make it more fairer to the taxpayer who help fund social housing so we don’t lose the sites as quickly as we are.”
Under Right to Buy, millions of homes have been sold across the country.
But housing campaigner Kwajo Tweneboa described the scheme as “the most damaging policy introduced in respect to social housing”.
On building social stock, he said ministers would have to intervene.
“The government talks about fixing the foundation – that starts with social housing,” he told the BBC.
Rayner was also pressed by Laura Kuenssberg on a Labour election promise to build 1.5m homes by the end of this parliament.
The deputy prime minister was asked how many would be social housing and how many would be council stock.
“I think it is really difficult to put an exact target on that because it depends on whether it is through a new town, access on a site with grey belt or whether it is an urban site,” Rayner said.
“But what I do want to see is the biggest wave of council housing in a generation and that is what I want to be measured on.
“There are a number of things we are doing to fix the system to make sure we get more council and social housing.”
