What Boris’s right-to-buy gets wrong

It isn’t hard to understand why the government should want to revive the spirit of Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy, which was credited for creating a whole new class of homeowners – and in the process Conservative voters. While the right to buy has never gone away – and survived the Blair and Brown years – it is a shadow of its former self. In 2020/21, 6,994 social homes were sold, compared with 167,123 in the peak year of the scheme, 1982/83. Last year’s figure was markedly lower even than the 17,756 homes sold in 2006/07 – the heyday of the Blair housing boom.

The Conservatives have already tried to revive the scheme once, under David Cameron, but ran up against serious obstacles. First and foremost, the scheme struggles now because house prices have increased so dramatically in real terms that there are few council and housing association tenants who can afford to buy their home – even with the generous discounts on offer.