It’s going to be harder for social housing tenants to purchase their homes through the Right To Buy policy.

Under proposals put forward by Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, tenants may have to wait more than 10 years to buy and those living in new-build social homes may never be able to purchase.

The government also wants to cut Right to Buy discounts to pre-2012 levels and discourage social tenants from selling homes they have bought.

“Too many social homes have been sold off before they can be replaced, which has directly contributed to the worst housing crisis in living memory. We cannot fix the crisis without addressing this issue – it’s like trying to fill a bath when the plug’s not in” says Rayner.

Currently, tenants can buy housing over three years old, but it has proposed increasing the length of time newly built social housing is protected from being bought to up to 30 years.

It also wants to reduce the maximum discounts for tenants using Right to Buy to between £16,000 and £38,000 depending on the council.

Under the current rules, tenants have to repay this discount to the council if they then sell the property on within five years of buying. The government wants to extend this to 10 years.

Since Right to Buy policy was introduced in 1980, almost every year has seen a net loss in social housing stock as governments have failed to build homes to replace those purchased.