Written by Victoria Silsbury of Swain & Co.’s specialist housing law team.
The number of council and housing association tenants taking up the right to buy their homes has more than doubled since the government increased the discount cap to £75,000.
New figures show that from April 2012 to April 2013, 8,398 council and housing association tenants exercised their right to buy with a further 2,149 sales taking place in the first quarter of this year.
These sales will generate £173m in receipts, which councils use to build new homes.
The raising of the discount cap to £75,000 means a quadrupling for tenants in London and trebling for most parts of Britain.
Prime Minister David Cameron said, “The success of the right to buy scheme shows how the new reinvigorated scheme is opening up the prospect of home ownership to even more people across the country.”
He added, “We are helping more and more hardworking people to buy somewhere to live and get on in life.”
The Housing Minister, Kris Hopkins added, “Because we’ve committed to using the additional money raised towards funding new and affordable homes for rent, we’re also getting Britain building and will soon have the fastest rate of affordable house-building for two decades.”
