Trend report: where has local authority-owned stock reduced most since the 1980s?

London has seen the smallest fall in LA dwellings at 39 per cent since 1978-79, becoming the region with the highest number of council-owned dwellings with 391,175 in 2023 (644,150 in 1978-79), the government’s local authority housing statistics show.

The North West moved from having the highest number of dwellings owned by local authorities in 1978-79 (711,898) to having the fewest in 2022-23. Stock transfers played a part in this. In the North West, just 11 of the region’s 39 district-level councils still own more than 1,000 homes, compared with 29 of London’s 33 boroughs.

The Right to Buy legislation passed in the Housing Act 1980 under Margaret Thatcher’s government allowed many LA tenants to purchase their home at a discounted rate.

The first large-scale voluntary transfer (LSVT) took place in 1988 from Chiltern Council, following various pieces of legislation in the 1980s which enabled the transfer of council homes to a housing association after a ballot of tenants.

The graph below runs from 1988-89, when stock transfers began.

2002-03 saw the greatest number of homes transferred through LSVTs at 167,270. This accounts for 68 per cent of the fall in LA stock for that year. There has been a gradual overall reduction since with no transfers occurring after 2015-16, according to figures from the UK Housing Review.

Between 1988-89 and 2022-23, 1,193,308 homes in England were sold through the Right to Buy, according to the government’s local authority housing statistics.

During the same period, 1,317,176 homes changed ownership in LSVTs.