Waltham Forest Council has lost 6,557 council houses through the Right to Buy scheme since it began.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, the authority revealed the government sold 382 of the borough’s council homes in the last five years alone.

Waltham Forest Council confirmed it has built 57 new council homes in the last five years and 79 since March 2012.

The controversial scheme began in 1980 under Margaret Thatcher’s government, allowing secure council house tenants and in some instances housing associations to buy homes at a reduced rate.

The central government legislation does not allow local authorities to keep or spend the money raised through the sale of council homes.

Estimates suggest around 1.5million council homes have been sold through the scheme across the UK since its introduction.

Year on year, Waltham Forest Council has lost the following number of council houses through the scheme between 2014 and 2018:

  • 2014-2015:  130 council homes sold
  • 2015-2016: 88 council homes sold
  • 2016-2017: 95 council homes sold
  • 2017-2018 : 52 council homes sold
  • 2018-present: 17 council homes sold so far this financial year.

With homelessness and a lack of affordable housing in the capital both pressing issues, Waltham Forest Council has made promises to build more affordable housing in the coming years.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan last month announced more than £25million for Waltham Forest Council to spend specifically on building 293 council homes in the coming years.

Overall the Mayor aims for London councils to build more than 14,000 council houses, 11,000 of which will be social rent homes.

Earlier this year, in her party conference speech, Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would lift the limit on how much money local authorities can borrow when building council houses, a move that was widely welcomed but more detail on this policy is yet to be released.

In the run up to this year’s local elections, council leader Cllr Clare Coghill promised to ensure 50 per cent affordable housing across the council’s development portfolio over the next four years, but not to ensure 50 per cent affordable housing on each individual development site.

Campaign group Waltham Forest Citizens coaxed Cllr Coghill into the promises in a pre-election gathering of more than 600 people and continue to apply pressure to the authority to not only keep these promises but go further.

Cllr Simon Miller, cabinet member for economic growth and high streets at Waltham Forest Council, explained the authority is aiming for 50 per cent affordable housing on all new development sites “wherever possible.”

He said: “We also plan to invest an extra £100million on top of the Mayor of London’s council houses funding, as part of an overall programme to build more than 1400 new council homes.”

He added that the council has no power to prevent people from buying their council homes as the national government policy was “imposed on councils” and one the authority must comply with.

He said: “The right to buy scheme has undoubtedly reduced the amount of social housing in Waltham Forest and across the UK which is why we have been lobbying government to try and keep more of the receipts from sales so we can replace the homes we lose.”