Boris Johnson is considering bringing Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme back to life by allowing people to buy the homes they rent from housing associations at a reduced price.

Officials in the No 10 policy unit are working on the idea, which is intended to help “generation rent” and demonstrate the government’s commitment to Conservative principles in the face of backbencher protests. According to reports, up to 2.5 million households could be eligible to buy their homes at a discount of up to 70%.
Housing specialists, on the other hand, warned that the program amounted to the sale of inexpensive homes during the cost-of-living crisis, and instead advocated for an increase in house building. Shelter’s chief executive, Polly Neate, slammed the “hare-brained idea” as “the opposite of what the country needs.”

Ministers are also debating whether or not banks should be allowed to use taxpayer money received by persons who receive housing benefits when applying for a mortgage.
The government is considering scrapping the requirement that developers produce a certain number of affordable homes in favor of requiring them to pay into an infrastructure fund that local governments might use to fund their own initiatives.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Johnson is “very excited” about reviving Thatcher’s right-to-buy legislation, which would allow the roughly 2.5 million households living in housing association properties to buy their houses.