The Housing Secretary has suggested she wants to stop new council homes in England being sold under Right to Buy.

Angela Rayner told the BBC the government would put restrictions on new homes in England “so that we aren’t losing that stock”.

Labour has already said the discount for tenants will be reduced to between £16,000 and £38,000, depending on location. Now it seems new homes may be ringing-fenced and not sold at all.

“We’ll be putting restrictions on them so that we aren’t losing those homes… we’re not losing that stock” Rayner told the BBC.

Ministers will launch a consultation on the issue later this year.

Last month’s Budget saw measures allowing local authorities to keep all the money they receive from council house sales, a policy the last Conservative government also followed for two years until March 2024.

Right to Buy was introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1980. Since then, more than two million homes have been sold.

The policy was initially credited with increasing rates of home ownership, but more recently has been blamed for contributing to the rise in homelessness.

Right to Buy was relaunched in 2012 by the Conservative-led coalition government, which increased the discount a tenant could receive when buying their home. 

Right to Buy was ended in Scotland in 2016, and in 2019 the Welsh government stopped the policy.