Right to Buy

The Right to Buy scheme was introduced in 1980 to give tenants of local authorities the right to buy their home at a discount.

The value of the discount is worked out based on the number of years a person has been a tenant.

As this scheme has so far been by voluntary agreement (not legislated) it is called Voluntary Right to Buy.

Under new Right to Buy proposals, announced in June 2022, the government are proposing to extend the scheme to also include tenants of housing associations, as well as those living in local authority homes.

The government has not yet explained how the new scheme will work or when it will be launched, but their intention would be to build a replacement social home for each one sold.

We know that some of our customers may be excited at the possibility of buying their home. However, our expectation is that homes in designated rural areas will be exempt from the scheme – and this will include most of Northamptonshire Rural Housing Association’s (NRHA) homes.

There are several reasons for this:

• Most of NRHA’s homes are built on rural exception sites and have Section 106 agreements (a legal agreement) in place to ensure that they remain as affordable homes in perpetuity (forever) for the benefit of the community.
• Homes in rural areas would be very difficult to replace – due to lack of land and planning policies.
• Due to the lack of affordable homes in rural communities, the loss of any affordable homes, and the time taken to replace them, would have a disproportionate impact on rural communities.

We’ll update this page when we receive more information from the government.

You can also visit the gov.uk websites for their latest updates:

• Right to Buy scheme extension 2022
• Voluntary Right to Buy (original scheme)

We don’t have any further details, but if you’d like to speak to a member of the housing team, please get in touch on 0300 1234 009 or email: enquiries@midlandsrural.org.uk