By Richard Johnstone | 26 February 2013
Sales of council houses under the right-to-buy scheme almost doubled to 2,000 in the last three months of last year, the Department for Communities and Local Government has revealed.
Housing minister Mark Prisk said today that the ‘surge’ in the number of council tenants wanting to buy their home was the result of the government's move to ‘reinvigorate' the scheme. Under the changes introduced last April, eligible tenants can be offered discounts of up to £75,000 off the value of their home, three times the level of previous discounts in some areas.
Sales totalled 2,010 between October and December last year, up from 1,041 in the three months between July and September, the department said.
Overall, 3,495 council-owned properties have been sold to tenants since the revamped scheme was launched – a third more than in the whole of the previous year, and the highest number of sales since 2007.
Seventy-two councils have experienced sales increases since last April. The highest rise was in the London Borough of Greenwich, where 74 homes have been sold since April 2012, compared with just 18 in the entire 2011/12 financial year.
Other London boroughs have also experienced increases. There were 28 sales in Wandsworth, compared with two in 2011/12; 36 in Haringey (seven in the 2011/12), and 31 in Havering, up from five.
North Tyneside had the biggest rise outside London, with 65 sales compared with 27 in 2011/12. The increase was also large in neighbouring Newcastle City Council, up to 64 sales from 28.
