Impact on home ownership and council housing
From the introduction of RTB in 1980-81 to 2013-14, there were 1.8 million RTB purchases; over the same period, local authority stock declined from 5.1 million homes to 1.7 million. The policy, therefore played a major role in the loss of social rented stock.
Between 1980 and 1990, owner occupation increased from 10.2 million dwellings to 13.5 million; one third of this increase was attributable to RTB, which acted as a major stimulus to tenure change.
RTB capital receipts up to 2010-11 amounted to around £45 billion, yet these were generally not available for reinvestment in new rented homes.
