The number of council tenants using the Right to Buy scheme to get on the property ladder almost doubled last year, data has revealed.

A total of 14,275 council homes were sold under the Right to Buy scheme in England during 2025-26, an increase of 90 per cent compared to 2024-25, based on figures reported by local authorities.

The Right to Buy scheme allows most council tenants to buy their council home at a discount to the market value.

The sharp increase in the number of people buying their council home comes after the Labour government lowered the discount available to buyers. 

Those that applied to buy their home before November 21, 2024 could get a discount of up to £136,400 if their home was in a London borough, or £102,400 if their home was outside London. 

While discounts can theoretically still be as high as 70 per cent of the property's value, it's now unlikely to get close to that level due to the maximum caps being lowered. These vary from region to region.

For example, in the South East council tenants can now get a maximum £38,000 discount off the price of their home. This falls to £16,000 in some areas such as West Berkshire and the boroughs of Tonbridge and Malling, Epsom and Ewell.

The application deadline this created led to a rush of applications from council tenants. 

Due to the length of the home buying process, many of those who applied before November 2024 would complete their purchases in 2025-26 and therefore be counted in that year's data. 

The analysis also revealed that local authorities received £1.61billion from eligible Right to Buy sales during the 2025-26 tax year, an increase of 99.6 per cent compared with the previous year. 

The average receipt per home was £112,900, an increase of 5 per cent compared to 2024-25. 

Since the start of the Right to Buy scheme in 1980, there have been over two million sales to council tenants. 

While the scheme continues to help people onto the property ladder, it also puts more pressure on the short supply of social housing.

Some 1.3 million households are on local authority housing waiting lists, according to a study from the Resolution Foundation, the highest number since 2014. 

There is also a near-record number of households living in temporary accommodation. 

A total of 3,452 replacement homes were funded through Right to Buy receipts during 2025-26, well short of the 14,275 sold and a fall of 7 per cent compared with the previous year. 

Nouran Moustafa, an independent financial adviser at Roxton Wealth, is concerned whether homes are being replaced fast enough.

'Right to Buy has been brilliant at creating individual homeowners, but terrible at replacing the social homes it removes. 

'Every home sold without an effective replacement shrinks the safety net for the next family and pushes more households towards an already expensive private rental market.'

Andy Burnham has claimed he will oversee the 'biggest council house building programme' since the post-Second World War period.

Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts, said: 'Tackling the provision of social housing was part of the first official speech from the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham.

'While this comment is positive, the scale and pace to achieve significant numbers of new dwellings has to be bold to cater to high demand.'

There are currently proposed reforms to overhaul the Right to Buy scheme under the Social Housing Bill, currently going through Parliament. 

Potential buyers currently need just three years as a public sector tenant to qualify, but this is planned to rise to ten years under the new reforms. 

On top of this newly-built social homes will be protected from the scheme for 35 years. 'Hard-to-replace' rural homes will also be excluded from the scheme and there could be further adjustments to the discounts to market value. 

These changes risk creating another cliff-edge and a rush of applications.  

Springall adds: 'The proposed changes to the Right to Buy scheme could cause a rush for tenants to buy their home in the months ahead, so seeking advice would be wise. 

'A third reading of the bill is expected in September, so there is still time for tenants to start the process of buying their home if they are eligible under the Right to Buy rules.'