England will sell off more than eight times as many council homes in 2025-26 as were constructed the previous year, research has found.
Right to buy is depleting council housing stock more quickly than public housing can be replaced, forcing people to spend more money on private market rents and obtain less secure tenancies, a report from the thinktank Common Wealth finds.
Its analysis of government data in England found that 38,170 social homes and 2,850 council homes were constructed by the government in 2023-24. In 2024-25, 2,260 council homes were built. There were 13,966 sell-offs of council houses through right to buy in 2023-24 and 8,656 in 2024-25. It is estimated that 18,500 council homes will be sold off in 2025-26 – more than eight times more than the number built in 2024-25.
The report concludes that if the government wants to increase the supply of social rental housing quickly, it must invest in buying back and restoring homes sold off under right to buy, alongside more council housebuilding.
Adam Peggs, the report’s author, said: “We need to pull every effective lever we can find to expand public housing. Council housing gave people secure, low-cost homes in the past. With the right framework, it can give people high-quality, genuinely affordable homes, with real democratic voice in the future too. But we need to build the political will to make it happen.
“Every day of delay is another day families languish in squalid temporary accommodation. The government has the tools to turn this emergency around – and more quickly than they might admit – they just need to use them.”
The report, which is published on Thursday, is also calling for expanded “right of first refusal” powers, enabling local authorities to be the preferred buyer when ex-social homes and private rental homes enter the market.
Since 1980, 2.4m council homes have been sold off under right to buy, at a discount that Common Wealth calculated was valued at £194bn, accounting for house price appreciation, with 41% now belonging to private landlords. As a result, council homes have collapsed from accommodating about 30% of households in the late 1970s to 6% today, a decline of about 80%.
Common Wealth’s report analysed council buy-ups of existing homes for public and social housing in seven countries, and determined that funding and incentivising a national right to buy back scheme would be a cost-effective policy in the UK.
The Spanish government has granted powers for a right of first refusal to the country’s new national public housing company after Barcelona acquired 1,500 homes – more than one-fifth of new affordable homes in the city – through right of first refusal powers since 2016, often below their market value.
The report also recommends a national rollout of a London scheme, in which the Greater London Authority bought 1,500 mostly ex-council homes in the first year of its right to buy back scheme. The New Economics Foundation calculated that this would generate a net saving to the taxpayer within 16 years.
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A 2024 report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation concluded that buyouts would offer better value for public money, rather than paying housing benefit to private landlords or private temporary accommodation.
Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing campaigner and the author of Our Country in Crisis, said: “Homes that were once publicly owned are now profit-generating assets for private landlords. That’s the legacy of right to buy. Reversing that damage isn’t just a nice idea. It’s essential.
“Buying back ex-council homes and investing in a new generation of high-quality, genuinely affordable council homes must be the backbone of any serious plan to fix this crisis. That means central government stepping up with proper funding and power – not just warm words and weak targets.”
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We do not recognise these figures. We know, however, that too many social homes have been sold off before they can be replaced, which has directly contributed to the worst housing crisis in living memory.
“That’s why we have introduced right-to-buy reforms to reverse the decline in much needed council housing, alongside investing £39bn to deliver the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation.”
