Boris Johnson planning to bring back Right to Buy

Boris Johnson wants to give millions of people the right to buy the homes they rent from housing associations in a major shake-up inspired by Margaret Thatcher.

The Prime Minister ordered officials to develop the plans in the last fortnight after becoming convinced the idea would help “generation rent”, The Telegraph can reveal.

The proposal is intended to give the 2.5 million households in England who rent properties from housing associations the power to purchase their homes at a discounted price.

It would be a new version of the famous Thatcher scheme that allowed families to buy properties from councils – one of the most well-known policies of her premiership.

A connected idea being pursued by officials is for the tens of billions of pounds paid by the Government in housing benefit to be used to help recipients secure mortgages.

“The Prime Minister has got very excited about this. It could be hugely significant,” said a government source familiar with the discussions.

“In many ways it is a direct replica of the great Maggie idea of ‘buy your own council flat’. It is ‘buy your own housing association flat’.”

Details of the policy have emerged ahead of what could be a bruising set of local election results for the Conservatives on Thursday.

Tory officials are briefing that they are expecting overall losses in council seats as the cost-of-living crisis bites, after a week of headlines about sexism and misogyny in Parliament, and amid the ongoing fallout from the partygate scandal. 

Rebel Tory MPs have said their calculation about when and how hard to push for Mr Johnson’s removal depends in part on how the Tories fare in Thursday’s voting.

Labour and Liberal Democrats on Sunday denied that they had formed an electoral pact, as Tory analysis suggested each party was standing fewer candidates than normal in the other’s target areas.

Downing Street believes the new version of “Right to Buy” would help scores of poorer households in traditional Labour “Red Wall” seats in the Midlands and North East which Mr Johnson won in the 2019 election.

If successful, the plans could also drive up the proportion of property ownership in the country – one of the surest indications of someone voting Conservative according to historic electoral analysis.

The Government’s plans for housing reform were left in tatters late last year after a proposed overhaul of planning rules to increase property building was ditched following a backlash from Tory MPs.

But in recent weeks Mr Johnson has commissioned his policy unit to pursue one aspect of his overarching housing drive – helping more people to become property owners.

Right to Buy, brought in by Mrs Thatcher in 1980, gave council tenants the ability to purchase their council home at a discount and remains in place to this day.

Mr Johnson wants to adopt a similar approach nationwide to housing associations, which are often independent of the Government.

Some 2.5 million households - or around five million people - live in accommodation rented from housing associations in England.

The proposal is not entirely new – it was included in the 2015 Tory election manifesto. Greg Clarke negotiated a deal with housing associations when he was the communities and local government secretary.

But momentum behind the drive faded after Theresa May replaced David Cameron as prime minister following the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Prices could still be too high for poorest tenants

The scheme would be similar to council Right to Buy, where tenants can get a discount of up to 70 per cent of the market price, depending on how long they have lived in the property.

A pilot of the scheme was launched in the Midlands in 2018. The Tories’ 2019 election manifesto vowed to consider new pilots, but no more have been announced.

Critics have questioned whether there would be uptake, given prices could still be too high for the poorest tenants, and noted it would not solve the housing shortage.

Another proposal being developed by policy officials is for the taxpayer money paid out in housing benefit to be used to help get recipients onto the housing ladder.

The idea – in its early development – is for banks to take the regular flow of housing benefit money into account for poorer households, who may have limited income, seeking mortgages.

Robert Jenrick, who was Mr Johnson’s communities secretary until last autumn, gave his backing to the extension of Right to Buy for housing association properties.

Mr Jenrick told The Telegraph: “Now is the time to extend the right to all tenants.

“Conservatives must be the party of home ownership, and along with building more homes, finding new routes to ownership should be at the heart of our mission.”