Affordable housing project 'a drop in the ocean'

Councillor Virginia Moran says 1,500 people are on South Kesteven's housing list

A senior councillor has claimed a new affordable housing scheme in Grantham is a "drop in the ocean" compared with a growing housing waiting list.

Knapp House, in Swinegate, will include 21 homes and is due to open in November.

Councillor Virginia Moran, the cabinet member for housing at South Kesteven District Council, said the authority had built about 125 homes over the past two years, but the housing waiting list had gone up from 1,000 to 1,500.

Critics argue the Right to Buy scheme – which was established by the government of Grantham-born Margaret Thatcher – is partly to blame for a lack of affordable housing, but supporters say it has greatly expanded home ownership.

Established in 1980 under the Housing Act, Right to Buy gave council tenants the ability to purchase their homes at a discount, and more than two million have done so nationwide over the past 45 years.

Speaking on the BBC's Politics North programme, Moran said the number of council homes in South Kesteven had dropped from 9,728 in 1980 to 5,800 in 2025.

Councillor Charmaine Morgan is a critic of Right to Buy

Fellow independent Councillor Charmaine Morgan, who represents Grantham St Vincents ward, said the decline in council-owned homes was "causing a big issue".

"Whilst it is great for people wanting to take on a new home, the fact is, ultimately those homes are gone from the public sector," she added.

Others continue to firmly support Right to Buy.

Richard Davies, a Grantham councillor who leads the Conservative group on Lincolnshire County Council, described it as "truly transformational".

"It was a flagship policy of the concept that Margaret Thatcher had that people needed to invest themselves emotionally and financially in their country, community, towns and streets," Davies said.

Davies says buying a home has been a huge moment for many families

"We still speak to people on the campaign trail who say 'my parents or my grandparents bought this house' and and they talk about it as being an absolutely monumental moment in their and their families' lives," he added.

Moran said she believed that changes introduced by the Labour government last year could slow down Right to Buy in the long term.

In the Budget last November, Chancellor Rachel Reeves slashed the maximum discounts available to tenants to between £16,000-£38,000, down from £102,400 to £136,400.

In July, the government said it also planned to make newly built social housing exempt from Right to Buy for 35 years. Tenants would also have to have lived in their properties for at least 10 years before qualifying, up from three.

The BBC has contacted the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for a comment.

Politics North is on BBC One at 10:00 BST.

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