Andy Burnham wants to suspend Right to Buy scheme

Andy Burnham wants to build 10,000 new social homes across Greater Manchester

Labour's Andy Burnham wants to press pause on the Right to Buy scheme after claiming it was the reason the housing crisis had got "worse every year".

He has called on the government to "suspend" the Right to Buy housing scheme to allow for more social homes to be built across the county.

Mr Burnham has pledged to build 10,000 homes across Greater Manchester after he was elected for a third-term in the mayoral elections.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said it remained committed to Right to Buy, which had "helped over two million social housing tenants to become homeowners".

Right to Buy allows most council tenants to buy their council home at a discount and supporters have said the scheme has helped people climb the housing ladder and secure their families' financial futures.

However, Mr Burnham said the housing crisis was "getting worse every year" because of it.

'Getting worse'

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, he said: "We lose social homes every year, and across Greater Manchester for the last year 500 social homes were lost.

"I'm saying to Whitehall and Westminster - you need to allow us to suspend Right to Buy from the new homes that we are building because if we don't, trying to solve the housing crisis is like trying to fill a bath but with the plug out because you try and build new homes but you lose them at the other end."

Mr Burnham hoped to solve the housing crisis in Greater Manchester within a decade by calling on the government to suspend, "not end" Right to Buy.

It formed part of his pledge to build 10,000 homes across the county, with at least 1,000 in every borough.

By working with public bodies to "release brown field land", he said the social homes would be a "new generation of council homes which will be cheaper to run".

"There is no solution to the housing crisis without building homes that people can truly afford," he added.

The mayor's plan would see 1,000 homes built in each Greater Manchester borough

Mark Slater from Greater Manchester Tenants Union said the housebuilding plan was a “start” for a region where new homes were desperately needed.

“In Rochdale, for example, we have between 23,000 and 24,000 people on waiting lists, some of who have been waiting for five years, so to call it a crisis is putting it mildly.”

He also backed calls to suspend right to buy, which Mr Salter said had reduced the stock of social housing “quite dramatically”.

A DLUHC spokesman said: "Local authorities oversee this [Right to Buy] process and can use money from sales and preferential borrowing rates to build new homes.

“Through our long-term plan for housing we are building the homes the country needs, including additional social housing, and we have delivered over 696,100 new affordable homes, of which over 172,600 are for social rent, since 2010.”

As part of his four-year term as mayor, Mr Burnham also wants to bring in a Greater Manchester Good Landlord charter to improve standards in the private rented sector.

He said: "We are going to give our residents the right to request a property check if they are concerned their home is unfit or unsafe."

The mayor of Greater Manchester has the most powers of any elected mayor outside London and oversees decisions in relation to areas including public transport, strategic planning and housing, productivity and skills, economy and innovation, and the environment.

They also fulfil the role of police and crime commissioner as well as hold responsibility for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service.