Official Statistics

Right to Buy sales and replacements - technical notes

Updated 23 August 2024

Applies to England

1. Data collection

Right to Buy sales of local authority stock are collected through the pooling of housing capital receipts returns supplied to MHCLG by local authorities. This provides information at district level for all local authority council house sales as well as housing capital expenditure related to Right to Buy replacements.

Following a consultation, from 2021-22, the return also now also includes mode detailed information on replacements funded through these receipts.

2. Data quality

2.1 Things to notice on this release

From 2023-24, Homes England is not separately identifying starts-on-sites funded with Right to Buy receipts, meaning the replacements figure for 2023-24 is an undercount of the total. Homes England reported on average around 300 replacements per year in each of the previous 5 years.

In 2023-24, 9 housing stock-owning authorities, including some with large numbers of housing stock, did not provide data in time for this publication. These Local Authorities were Birmingham, Tower Hamlets, Ealing, Wiltshire, Guildford, Babergh, Brentwood, Oldham and Hartlepool. This is a higher non-response rate than usual for these annual statistics. In 2022-23, these authorities held 6.5% of all Local Authority housing stock in England. Where possible we have added footnotes with weighted estimates of how this is likely to affect England-wide totals as a result, but the main body of the report focuses on the actual values reported to the department.

2.2 Completions of replacements time series

Following changes to the 2021-22 data collection, this release includes statistics on the number of properties funded through Right to Buy receipts which have been completed and that count towards the one-for-one replacement target. Between 2012-13 and 2020-21, these data were collected in the Local authority housing statistics.

Due to the changes to collections, the comparison of completions data since 2021-22 with the figures from 2020-21 and earlier should be done with care, as some variations may be due to differences in the data collection and methodology (including different response rates and different teams in local authorities providing the data) and may not reflect actual changes.

2.3 Comparisons with Affordable Housing Supply statistics

There are discrepancies on the number of Homes England and Greater London Authority completions between the data presented here and the data published under Right to Buy recycled receipts in the Affordable housing supply statistics (in live tables 1000S, 1000C and 1011 and the open data).

This is because between 2016-17 and 2019-20 the Greater London Authority did not mark the number of units started and completed using Right to Buy recycled receipts in the data extract used in Affordable Housing Supply statistics, although these were included in their overall delivery total. Additionally, there are discrepancies for years between 2013-14 and 2015-16 due a change in the database used by the Greater London Authority in 2018. Other discrepancies may arise to avoid double counting acquisitions. Data on completions funded through Right to Buy recycled receipts used in this release are provided in a separate table and are considered more reliable.

In June 2024, Homes England revised their figures for starts from 2016-17 to 2022-23 and their figures for completions for 2021-22 and 2022-23. Additionally, the Greater London Authority revised data on the tenure of their units funded via Right to Buy recycled receipts from 2020-21 onwards.

As a result of these revisions, we have not included 35 units as replacements in 2020-21 to avoid double counting. These units are marked as unknown type starts (i.e. new build or acquisition) and the target is measured as new build starts and completed acquisitions. To include them would risk double counting if they were acquisitions. If the type information is updated at a later date, we will include them in a future release.

2.4 Assessment of data quality

In 2015, the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) published a regulatory standard for the quality assurance of administrative data. To assess the quality of the data provided for this release, the department has followed that standard.

The Right to Buy sales and replacements statistical release is produced by MHCLG based on data provided by local authorities. An assessment of the level of risk based on the Quality Assurance Toolkit:

Table 1: MHCLG Right to Buy sales and replacements sources

Statistical Series	Administrative Source	Data Quality Concern	Public Interest	Matrix Classification
Right to Buy Sales and Replacements Statistics	Local authorities’ individual data system	Low	Medium	Low Risk (A2)

The Right to Buy sales and replacements release can be considered as medium profile, as there has been mainstream media interest, with moderate economic and/or political sensitivity.

The data quality concern is considered low given that the data are checked by providers and is subject to data quality checks by MHCLG prior to publication. To ensure the accuracy of these figures, the department contacts local authorities in the following categories:

• local authorities with more than 30 starts on site and acquisitions

• local authorities where the expenditure per replacement is higher than £400,000, or lower than £10,000

• local authorities that report expenditure but no replacements (this is sometimes due to expenditure on projects begun in the previous financial year, for instance)

• local authorities reporting sales of more than 5% of their stock (stock according to the most recent local authority housing statistics return)

Overall, the quarterly Right to Buy sales release has been assessed as A2: Low/Medium Risk. Further details are also provided against each of the 4 areas outlined in the Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) Toolkit.

2.5 Operational context and administrative data collection

For local authority data returns (submitted through the pooling of housing capital receipts), the figures on local authority Right to Buy sales and receipts are audited annually by local authorities and continuously quality assured by MHCLG, which can result in revisions. For consistency, the sales figures are additionally compared against those supplied through the annual LAHS return, which can result in further revisions.

The figures for starts on site and acquisitions are not audited in the way that sales and receipts figures are and there are no comparable statistics collected against which they can be assessed. Previous consultations revealed that the question the Department asks in its Pooling of Housing Capital Receipts Return about starts on site and acquisitions was originally interpreted in different ways by different local authorities. For example, when the questions were first introduced, some local authorities may have reported all starts on site and acquisitions rather than excluding those that were partially or fully funded by HE or the GLA. To address this issue, MHCLG keeps in contact with the data suppliers to ensure that there is a common understanding of what information is being supplied.

However, it is possible that interpretation of starts on site and acquisitions by local authorities may still not be uniform. We continue to work with local authorities to improve the quality of the data and the way it is collected. In some cases, the year in which the start is reported may be later than the actual year when the start actually occurred. This is caused by a delay between the start on site occurring and this being reported to us via the local authority.

Every effort is made to collect data from every local authority but on occasion estimates may be used (see imputation). Care should be taken using data at a local authority level as, for many authorities, the totals are low and therefore can be volatile.

2.6 Communication with data supply partners

There are regular contacts with the data suppliers for this release to ensure that there is a common understanding of what information is being supplied.

Communication with suppliers is managed through several formats (regular contact with data providers via email or phone either during the data collection or validation checks processes).

2.7 QA principles, standards and checks by data suppliers

The Pooling of Housing Capital Receipts data is provided by local authorities and the Department does not have full oversight of their systems and quality procedures. We provide clear guidance and documentation to them via DELTA. Data received by the Department undergoes an extensive validation process.

The data provided as part of the Pooling of Housing Capital Receipts is subject to the audit procedures of the local authority and is therefore subject to detailed checks and certification by the authority before providing data to MHCLG.

2.8 Producers’ QA investigation and documentation

Whilst providers are expected to carry out their own checks before the data is submitted for this publication, further quality assurance is carried out once the data is received by the responsible statisticians for this publication.

The quality assurance process includes sense checks on previous year’s statistics, previous quarters’ management information figures, local authority housing statistics, identification of extreme values, cross validation of multiple fields and, if necessary, contacting the data provider for confirmation of figures.

The data, report and tables are independently quality assured by another statistician in the production team. Further final checks are performed to the final end product. These checks use a clear checklist approach to ensure the figures are consistent across the release and live tables, with each check being systematically signed off when it has been completed.

3. Imputation

Imputations are no longer performed on the Pooling of Housing Capital Receipts data. Up to Q4 2017-18, MHCLG imputed values for local authorities that did not submit data for the past 4 quarters. This involved replacing missing data (blank return) with a zero and highlighting the changes made in the live tables. Imputation highlighting was removed after 4 quarters.

Due to a change in the data collection system in Q1 2018-19 it is not possible to distinguish between a return of zero and a blank return. Since then, imputations could not be identified for quarterly Right to Buy sales, receipts and starts-on-site and acquisitions. However, this does not impact on published totals.

4. Definitions

4.1 Eligible sales

Eligible sales, in this release, are counted as any sale of a property, built before 2008, which was owned by a local authority housing revenue account and sold with a discount through the Right to Buy scheme.

The sales figures exclude Right to Buy (RTB) sales of dwellings which are not accounted for in a local authority’s Housing Revenue Account, either because the authority, having disposed of nearly all its dwellings to a Private Registered Provider (PRP), has closed down its Housing Revenue Account or because the dwelling was originally tied to a particular occupation (e.g. a school caretaker’s cottage or a park keeper’s cottage). The figures may also exclude any Right to Buy sales of dwellings which, although accounted for in the Housing Revenue Account, are the subject of an agreement made either under section 80B of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (as inserted by section 313 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and now repealed) or under section 11(6) of the Local Government Act 2003 (as inserted by section 174 of the Localism Act 2011).

The figures may include sales at less than market value of dwellings accounted for in the Housing Revenue Account to secure tenants of a local authority, even when those sales are not strictly under Right to Buy.

Sales also include any shared ownership sold through Right to Buy where the premium paid by the purchaser exceeded 50% of the market value of the property (see Proportions of dwellings below).

4.2 Proportions of dwellings

Some figures will include proportions of dwellings. This is because the figures also include sales of a shared ownership lease of a dwelling accounted for in the Housing Revenue Account where either the premium (i.e. a portion of the market value of the dwelling) paid by the purchaser exceeded 50% of the market value of the dwelling or the sum of the premium paid by the purchaser and all other premiums paid up to 2 years before the payment of the current premium. Where a shared ownership disposal has been included, the figure corresponds to the portion of the market value paid; for example, the purchase of a 50% equity share will be represented by 0.5.

4.3 Eligible receipts

The figures include receipts arising from all sales included in the sales figures. Figures for a financial year may include receipts arising from a sale in another year, but do not include receipts arising from sales before 1 April 2012. After a portion of these receipts are reserved for costs incurred by authorities in administering the Right to Buy scheme, paying off additional local authority housing debt, an amount for authorities to use for general capital purposes, a share required by HM Treasury, and (in a small number of cases) for buying back former council properties, the remainder of the receipts are for the funding of additional homes for affordable or social rent.

A local authority may either return this portion of the receipts to Homes England or the Greater London Authority for redistribution for funding these additional homes, or, if it has signed an agreement with MHCLG, retain part or all of this portion on the condition that it spends, or ensures that another body spends on its behalf, an agreed amount for this same purpose within 3 years. Details of starts on site and completions (including acquisitions) using recycled Right to Buy receipts since 2014-15 can also be found in live tables, 1011S and 1011C respectively.

The definitions used in this publication can be found in the Housing statistics and English Housing survey glossary published by MHCLG.

4.4 Discounts

When the Right to Buy policy was introduced in October 1980, there was a maximum discount in place of £25,000 nationwide. In January 1987, this was increased to £35,000, and in April 1989 it was increased further to £50,000.

In February 1999, maximum discounts were set regionally, with maxima of £38,000 in London and the South East, £34,000 in the East of England, £30,000 in the South West, £26,000 in the North West and West Midlands, £24,000 in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber, and £22,000 in the North East.

In March 2003, 41 Local Authorities in London, the South East and the East had their maximum discounts reduced to £16,000. The authorities included all of London apart from Barking and Dagenham and Havering, as well as Chiltern, Epsom and Ewell, Hart, Oxford, Reading, Reigate and Banstead, Tonbridge and Malling, Vale of the White Horse, West Berkshire, and Watford.

In 2012 the scheme was reinvigorated, with maximum discounts increased to £75,000 across England. In 2013, the maximum discount in London was further increased to £100,000. All the maximum discounts since 2012 are listed in the table below:

Year	London	Rest of England
2012	£75,000	£75,000
2013	£100,000	£75,000
2014	£102,700	£77,000
2015	£103,900	£77,900
2017	£104,900	£78,600
2018	£108,000	£80,900
2019	£110,500	£82,800
2020	£112,300	£84,200
2021	£112,800	£84,600
2022	£116,200	£87,200
2023	£127,900	£96,000
2024	£136,400	£102,400

4.5 One-for-one replacements target

When Right to Buy was reinvigorated in 2012, a baseline was calculated of the expected numbers of sales every year without reinvigoration using sales figures from 2010. There is a target that every sale of a property above this baseline should be replaced, on a one-for-one basis, with a new property nationally within three years.

The number of replacements is calculated by adding new build starts-on-sites and acquisitions completed.

5. Revisions policy

This policy has been developed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Official statistics and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s revisions policy.

It covers 2 types of revisions that the policy covers, as follow:

5.1 Non-scheduled revisions

Where a substantial error has occurred as a result of the compilation or dissemination process, the statistical release, live tables and other accompanying releases will be updated with a correction notice as soon as is practical.

5.2 Scheduled revisions

Revisions to the latest year will be made in the subsequent release after this data is submitted by the local authority.

Where there was an error or data was not previously provided, revisions to any previous historical years will also be made.

5.3 Revisions in this release

Some Local Authorities have updated their historic pooling returns since the last publication; these updated values have been reflected in this release. For this release, values have been updated in every year from 2015-16 to 2022-23.

In June 2024, Homes England revised their figures for starts from 2016-17 to 2022-23 and their figures for completions for 2021-22 and 2022-23. Additionally, the Greater London Authority revised data on the tenure of their units funded via Right to Buy recycled receipts from 2020-21 onwards.

We have not included 35 units as replacements in 2020-21 for Hambleton to avoid double counting. We have reported them as unknown type starts in the affordable housing supply statistics as the source data marked them as a mix of new build or acquisition and we cannot separate them. As the target is measured as new build starts and completed acquisitions, to include them would risk double counting some acquisitions, since we cannot be sure how many there are among the 35 units. If this information is updated at a later date, we will include them in a future release.

6. Other information

6.1 Uses of the data

These statistics are used to monitor local authority Right to Buy sales and analyse the effectiveness of policy changes around Right to Buy and the housing sector.

7. Related statistics 

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is part of a cross government working group, including devolved administrations and the Office of National Statistics, working to improve the trustworthiness quality and value of housing and planning statistics across the UK. This working group has published action plan to make the planned improvements on house building statistics clear and transparent to users. Details of this work and how you can provide feedback are available via the Government Statistical Service website.

7.1 Right to Buy sales and replacements (this release)

• annual audited figures on Right to Buy sales and replacement of stock sold

• usually published in July

• data provided directly by local authorities

• figures provided are local authority Right to Buy sales, the associated receipts, the starts on site and acquisitions of the delivered replacements

7.2 Social Housing sales and demolitions

• source: MHCLG

• annual estimates of sales for social housing stock in England. Characteristics for private registered provider (PRP) sales are also shown. Annual (usually published in December)

• data sources:

• the Local Authority Housing Statistics (LAHS) form administered by MHCLG

• the Pooling of Housing Capital Receipts return administered by MHCLG

• the Statistical Data Return (SDR) from the RSH

• the COntinuous REcording (CORE) data collection run by MHCLG

• the Investment Management System (IMS) administration system run by HE

• Greater London Affordable Housing Statistics from the GLA

• these figures provide an overview of all sales of social housing stock in England. Shared ownership sales are not counted as they are treated as supply and not the sale of existing stock.

• these figures provide characteristics for PRP sales that have been recorded in CORE sales.

7.3 Quarterly Right to Buy management information

• source: MHCLG

• quarterly estimates of local authority Right to Buy

• data provided directly by local authorities

• leading indicator for the Right to Buy policy

• figures provided are local authority Right to Buy sales, the associated receipts. The starts on site and acquisitions of the delivered replacements.

7.4 Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands pilot management information

• annual

• published on 24 February 2022

• data provided directly by Registered Providers

• update on the progress of homes sold and replacements under the Voluntary Right to Buy (VRTB) Midlands pilot, which was launched in August 2018

7.5 Social housing lettings

• source: MHCLG

• annual estimates of lettings for social housing

• last published May 2023

• sources:

• the COntinuous REcording (CORE) data collection run by MHCLG

• the Local Authority Statistics (LAHS) form administered by MHCLG

• these figures provide an overview of all lettings of social housing stock in England

7.6 Affordable housing supply

• source: MHCLG

• overall affordable housing supply (new build and acquisitions)

• usually published in November

• sourced from Homes England and Greater London Authority data which is published every 6 months combined with and Local Authority Housing Statistics Data

• provides the most complete estimate of affordable housing supply. Affordable housing figures are a subset of total housing supply

7.7 Local Authority Housing Statistics

• source: MHCLG

• stock and condition of Local Authority owned housing, including information on rents and waiting lists

• annual

• no longer has a dedicated bulletin, the data is published between November and January

• data provided directly by local authorities Information on the stock, condition and changes to local authority owned properties

7.8 Statistical Data Return

• source: RSH

• stock and condition of Private Registered Provider owned housing

• annual

• data provided directly by Private Registered Provider to the Regulator of Social Housing Information on the stock, condition and changes to Private Registered Provider owned properties. Local Authority Data Return Stock, rents and condition of Local Authority owned housing Annual Data provided directly by local authorities to the Regulator of Social Housing

7.9 Housing supply: indicators of new supply statistics

• source: MHCLG

• quarterly estimates of new build starts and completions

• sourced from building control officers at:

• national House Building Council

• local Authorities

• approved Inspectors

• this is a ‘leading indicator’ of house building, available soon (< 2 months) after each quarter’s end

7.10 Housing supply; net additional dwellings

• source: MHCLG

• total housing supply that comprises all new build, conversions , change of use, other gains/losses and demolitions

• annual, usually published in November

• comes from local authorities outside London (Housing Flows Reconciliation Return) and for London boroughs is provided by Greater London Authority (London Development Database)

• provides an accurate assessment of annual change in all housing stock and is the most comprehensive estimate of supply

7.11 Dwelling Stock estimates

• source: MHCLG

• total housing stock, split by tenure

• annual

• usually published in May

• overall change in stock from Net Additional Dwellings

• tenure information provided directly from local authorities and housing associations

• provides an accurate assessment of the total size of the housing stock and how it is split by tenure

7.12 Homes England housing statistics

Homes England (HE) publishes bi-annual statistics collected through its Investment Management System (IMS) and Planning Concept Statement (PCS) returns detailing the housing starts on site and housing completions delivered by the HE.

7.13 Greater Local Authority housing statistics

The Greater London Authority (GLA) publish monthly statistics detailing the housing starts on site and housing completions delivered by the GLA.

8. Devolved administration statistics

8.1 Data for Wales

The Welsh Government publishes information on social housing sales, which does include information on Right to Buy sales. On 26 January 2019, Right to Buy was repealed for all council and housing association tenants.

8.2 Data for Scotland

The Scottish Government publish information on social housing sales, however, from 1 August 2016, Right to Buy was repealed for all council and housing association tenants in Scotland.

8.3 Data for Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland social tenants have the right to a statutory house sale, which is similar to Right to Buy.

9. User engagement

Users are encouraged to provide feedback on how these statistics are used and how well they meet user needs. Comments on any issues relating to this statistical release are welcomed and encouraged. Responses should be addressed to the ‘Public enquiries’ contact given in the Enquiries section below.

See the Department’s engagement strategy to meet the needs of statistics users.

10. Enquiries

Media enquiries:

Office hours: 0303 444 1209

Email: [email protected]

Public enquiries:

Email: [email protected]

Information on Official Statistics is available via the UK Statistics Authority website.

Information about statistics at MHCLG is available via the Department’s website.