The speed at which social rented homes are being lost in England more than doubled in the year to April 2014 as right-to-buy sales and a move to more expensive rents removed almost 44,000 properties from the sector.
Social rented homes are managed by councils and housing associations and let to those on the housing register at a below-market rent set at a level based on local property prices and earnings, among other factors. For England, the average social rent is £95 a week, and councils have long lists of would-be tenants looking for homes.
Research by the Chartered Institute of Housing for its UK Housing Review 2015 using government figures was seen by the Guardian. It showed that the stock of social rented homes fell by 43,850 in 2013-14, compared with a drop of 19,189 the previous year despite the fact that over those two years more than 28,000 new social rented homes were built.
Of the more than 63,000 properties lost over the past two years, 17,000 were lost through right-to-buy sales. A revamp of the scheme in 2012 led to an increase in take-up, particularly in London where buyers can get a discount of £100,000 on the market value.
In the year to April 2014, housing associations saw their stock of social rented homes fall by 29,567, 26,918 of which were homes converted to affordable rents, CIH found. Homes offered for affordable rents can cost up to 80% of the open-market value.
Affordable rents have proved controversial because in some areas of the country they are much higher than traditional social rents. CIH said that while in the north-east of England they were only just over a third higher, in London the difference was more than two-thirds. “Despite this,” it said, “the profile of tenants getting lettings in the two parts of the sector is similar, putting extra pressure on the housing benefit bill.”
It said while homes available at an affordable rent had a role to play in a balanced housing system, they should not be at the expense of social rent.
It called on the government to review the level of discounts available on right-to-buy and the way the receipts were used to make sure that all homes sold through the scheme were replaced.
CIH chief executive Grainia Long said: “Last year I called on the government to set a national target for house-building, and we believe this must include new homes for social rent. We’ve been failing to build the number of new homes we need for decades, and as a result millions of people are being priced out of a decent home, whether that’s to rent or buy.
She added: “The disastrous reduction in numbers of new social homes being built is quite simply bad policy – we are storing up trouble for the future and we must reverse this trend.”
