Labour Just Pulled the Rug Out From Under Council House Buyers

By HOAR Team 4 July, 2025 6 mins read 82 Views

Well, this is awkward.

Angela Rayner just gutted the Right to Buy scheme - you know, that thing that helped millions of people actually own their homes instead of paying rent forever. The same scheme she used herself back in 2017 when she bought her council house in Stockport for £79,000 (with a nice 25% discount, thank you very much) and then flipped it for nearly £50K profit.

But hey, apparently what's good for the Deputy Prime Minister isn't good for the rest of us.

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What Actually Changed (Spoiler: It's Not Good)

Here's the brutal breakdown. The discount that used to be 35% - which already wasn't exactly generous - just got slashed to between 5% and 15%. Five percent! That's like getting a coupon for a free side of fries when you're buying a car.

And it gets worse. Remember when you only needed to live in your council house for three years before you could buy it? Yeah, that's now ten years. A full decade of paying rent before you can even think about ownership.

Oh, and if you've already used Right to Buy once? Tough luck. You're banned from ever using it again. Because apparently helping people build wealth through property ownership is now considered selfish or something.

The Thatcher Ghost Haunts Labour

Right to Buy was Margaret Thatcher's baby back in 1979. Love her or hate her, the woman understood that people want to own their homes, not rent them forever from the government. It helped propel her to victory because - shocker - most people actually like the idea of building equity instead of throwing money into the void every month.

But Labour's decided this is an "attack on aspiration." Their words, not mine. Though I'm pretty sure they meant it as a feature, not a bug.

New Builds? Forget About It

Any newly built council houses are now completely off-limits for 35 years. Thirty-five years! By the time you're allowed to buy your home, you'll probably need a walker to get to the closing.

Kevin Hollinrake, the shadow housing secretary, called Rayner a "hypocrite" - which honestly feels like the understatement of the century. The woman literally bought her own council house with a discount, sold it for a tidy profit, and is now pulling up the ladder behind her.

His response was pretty blunt: "This is nothing short of an attack on aspiration. Labour is turning its back on the very families who work hard and want a stake in their future."

The Math That Doesn't Add Up

Let me get this straight. Rayner paid £79,000 for her Stockport council house in 2017 after claiming a 25% discount. She then sold it for £127,500 - making nearly fifty grand in profit.

Now she's telling everyone else they can only get a 5-15% discount and have to wait ten years instead of three. The audacity is actually impressive.

Labour's Brilliant Housing Strategy

According to Keir Starmer, the Right to Buy scheme was reducing the number of social houses available. Fair enough - that's actually true. But their solution isn't to build more houses (which would be, you know, logical). Instead, they're just making it nearly impossible for anyone to buy the ones that exist.

Hollinrake made a particularly sharp point: "It is increasingly clear that the only guaranteed route to housing in this country is to arrive on a small boat." Ouch.

The Ministry of Housing thinks this will help councils "rebuild their stock." But here's the thing - they've had decades to rebuild stock and haven't done it. What makes anyone think they'll start now?

Who This Really Hurts

This isn't hitting wealthy property investors or landlords. They'll be fine. This is hitting working families who've been paying rent for years and dreamed of actually owning their home someday.

The only exceptions to the new rules? Victims of domestic abuse can still access the scheme under "exceptional circumstances." Which is good, but also highlights how restrictive these new rules really are.

For everyone else, Labour's message is crystal clear: Keep renting. Keep paying someone else's mortgage. Keep building someone else's wealth instead of your own.

And don't you dare aspire to anything different.

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https://hellofaread.com/money/next-is-ditching-middlesbrough-and-im-not-even-surprised-anymore