Social Housing Bill [HL]

Lord Sikka Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sikka (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome this pragmatic Bill, as it seeks to protect social housing stock and tenants. It is shameful that, due to low wages and profiteering, too many people cannot afford decent housing. Some 330,410 households need homelessness support; 134,760 households are living in temporary accommodation; and an estimated 172,420 children are living in temporary accommodation. Social housing matters, because it enables local authorities and housing associations to address homelessness, provide secure accommodation for families, provide affordable housing to millions of people, provide competition for the private sector and reduce the cost of living crisis. The depletion of social housing stock forces families to enter the private rented sector, which is more expensive.

Some 4.4 million new social homes, or around 126,000 a year, were built in the 35 years following the end of the Second World War. By 1983, in the aftermath of Conservative policies, social housebuilding declined to 44,240 a year, and by the end of Conservative rule, in 2024, it was down to 10,000 a year.

The right to buy for sitting council tenants did not start with the Conservative Party, though it likes to take credit for it. It has existed since the 19th century. The Housing Act 1936 and the House Purchase and Housing Act 1959 affirmed that commitment. The biggest change came in 1980, when the Thatcher Government offered tenants massive discounts, which my noble friend Lord Davies of Brixton might say were actually bribes. By March 2025, 2.8 million homes had been sold to tenants across the UK at an average discount of 44% of market value. The discounted sales generated £62 billion, which local councils could not use to replenish the stock. Some 1.9 million council homes were sold by England’s local authorities for £51 billion. In 2024 the same houses were worth £430 billion. Commenting on this, the think tank Common Wealth said in 2024 that

“£194 billion corresponds to the equity that was effectively given away for free through the discount. Only £236 billion corresponds to the equity that was compensated at market value at the time of sale, for which councils received £51 billion in nominal terms, or £104 billion”

in 2024 money. So this was a massive giveaway by the Conservative Party.

The housing stock has not been replenished. In the 44 years after the Conservative right to buy, councils built a total of 300,000 new homes, severely restricting their capacity to provide affordable accommodation to millions. The total number of social home housing stock has declined from 6.8 million at its peak to 5.4 million. Insufficient social housebuilding plus too many homes being sold or demolished means that there has been a net loss of social housing stock in almost every year since 1981. In some years, more social homes are being sold than actually built. Around 18,500 council homes were planned to be sold off in 2025-26. That is almost eight times more than the numbers built in 2024-25.

The housing crisis has been deepened by the legacy of the Conservative policies. It has pushed more people into poverty and the expensive private sector. Nearly 41% of council homes sold under the right to buy are now being let in the private market, so that has not actually increased home ownership at all.

In 2025, England had a waiting list of 1.34 million households. In 2024-25 alone, England’s councils spent £2,842,091 on temporary and emergency accommodation, which could have been avoided if there was an adequate stock of social housing. This drain on the public purse has more than doubled in five years.

Against the background of the Conservative legacy, I welcome the constraints in the Bill on the sale of social housing and profit-making from it. I welcome the Government’s 2025 announcement to build 300,000 social and affordable homes over a 10-year period, of which some 180,000 are for social rent. In my opinion, that is not enough. Civil society organisations are calling for 150,000 new social homes a year. Can the Minister explain why the Government are not being ambitious and how such a tiny target will address the social housing crisis?

I also urge the Minister to amend the Bill to ensure that the number of social housing units sold in any two-year period does not exceed the numbers actually built during the preceding two years. Otherwise, we will never be able to fully replenish the housing stock. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s reply.