Housing minister Christopher Pincher has agreed that the government is currently looking into plans to further extend deadlines for Right to Buy receipt of submissions.

This would significantly increase the amount of time local councils have to spend the proceeds raised through the Right to Buy, with the deadline having already been extended by six months in June.

In response to the major slowdown in development due to the coronavirus crisis, the government is exploring options to increase flexibility for local councils yet to allocate Right to Buy funds.

Mr Pincher confirmed in response to a question that ministers are “currently looking into requests for further extensions and will inform authorities of the outcome as soon as possible”.

Traditionally, local councils have had a deadline of three years within which to return spending receipts for Right to Buy, after which the remaining proceeds must be transferred directly to the treasury.

Requests for the deadline to be increased to a minimum of five years had previously been submitted by the Local Government Association (LGA) – a more compact extension of six months was confirmed in June as a COVID-19 response measure.

Unprecedented Times

When prompted by Dan Poulter, Mr. Pincher indicated that the current six-month extension could be increased to provide greater flexibility for local councils.

“To support local authority house building during this unprecedented time, we extended the deadline for local authorities to spend receipts arising from sales of their homes by an additional six months,” said Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, Mr. Pincher.

“This has enabled many of them to catch up with their spending plans and deliver replacement social housing,”

“We are currently looking into requests for further extensions and will inform authorities of the outcome as soon as possible.”

Council tenants who qualify under the Right to Buy can claim major discounts on the market values of their homes – currently up to a maximum of £112,300. Demand for affordable properties under the Right to Buy continues to outstrip supply, with the government already being more than for 1,700 homes short of its own three-year target.

The Local Government Association continues to pile pressure on the government, having critiqued the way in which only one-third of Right to Buy receipts can currently be spent on building new affordable housing.

Right to Buy continues to be an extremely popular option in England, though has been banned in both Wales and Scotland. The government of Northern Ireland has also indicated its intent to rethink and potentially remove its Right to Buy process in its entirety.

Author: Craig Upton