A loophole means councils are currently powerless to reclaim discounts if homes are sold back after five years.<\/p>\n
In Newham, the council area with England\u2019s highest social housing waiting list, the borough\u2019s authorities sold 130 properties for \u00a310.6m under Right to Buy, then repurchased them for \u00a333.4 \u2013 a loss of \u00a322.7m<\/p>\n
These Yo-yo Homes include a property in E13, sold under Right to Buy in 2015 for \u00a377,300, then repurchased in 2022 for \u00a3340,000, a loss of \u00a3262,700. Newham Council said it was quicker and cheaper to repurchase the properties, most of which were flats in council-owned blocks, than to build new homes.<\/p>\n
Islington Council found itself down \u00a312.2m on 56 homes, after selling them for \u00a39.4m and buying them back for \u00a321.6m.<\/p>\n
Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n
Among the homes we discovered was a property on Essex Road, sold under Right to Buy in August 2018 for \u00a3175,000, then repurchased in February 2024 for \u00a3475,000 \u2013 a loss of \u00a3300,000. Islington Council told us its Yo-yo Homes were used for families in temporary accommodation<\/a>, with the borough facing record demand.<\/p>\n Our investigation revealed 43 Yo-yo Homes in Greenwich, housing minister Matthew Pennycook\u2019s constituency, with taxpayers losing \u00a36.2m. Southwark Council sold 22 properties for \u00a31.8m then repurchased them for \u00a36m, losing \u00a34.2m<\/p>\n Redbridge Council sold 25 homes for \u00a33m then repurchased them for \u00a37.1m, a loss of \u00a34.1m<\/p>\n The investigation also discovered that Barking and Dagenham Council sold a pair of properties for \u00a3127,720, then bought them back two years later for a combined \u00a3415,000 \u2013 with the express intention of knocking the homes down as part of a regeneration scheme.<\/p>\n \u201cRight to Buy has had a deeply damaging impact on London\u2019s housing system. Decades of forced sell-offs, without the ability to replace those council homes, have hollowed out the social housing stock that families rely on. It has fuelled the housing crisis we see across London and Camden today,\u201d said Camden\u2019s cabinet member for better homes, Sagal Abdi-Wali.<\/p>\n \u201cThe law must be reformed so we can safeguard good-quality social housing for future generations. These opportunities to return former Right to Buy properties to genuinely affordable, secure social housing is a vital step towards rebuilding the council housing our communities urgently need.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Read more of Big Issue\u2019s investigation into Yo-yo Homes:<\/strong><\/p>\n Since 2011, the number of London households in temporary accommodation has almost doubled<\/a> to 69,000. Of those, almost 7,000 are living in bed and breakfasts, and nearly half have been moved to a different borough. This crisis has produced a \u00a3740m financial black hole across the capital, with around \u00a31 in every \u00a310<\/a> paid in council tax bills spent on temporary accommodation.<\/p>\n Right to Buy has meant the loss of over 300,000 council homes in the capital. Nationally, the government hopes its reforms of the system will prevent the loss<\/a> of 25,000 social homes in the next five years.<\/p>\n Councils said the Yo-yo Homes were funded by their own finances and grant funding.<\/p>\n Khan has also provided cash for councils to repurchase lost council homes. He introduced the Right to Buy Back programme from 2021-2023, and then the Council Homes Acquisition Programme.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The maximum discount in most parts of London was reduced to \u00a316,000 in November 2024, down from \u00a3136,400, as the government looked to reform Right to Buy. Khan has previously said he wants the government to go further than this and allow councils to be able to end the Right to Buy.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Khan\u2019s comments add to growing discord over Yo-yo Homes. Paul Dennett, Andy Burnham\u2019s mayor in Manchester, said Labour needed to \u201curgently\u201d speed up its reforms to extend the period in which councils can reclaim discounts from five to 10 years.<\/p>\n In Swindon, a Green Party politician unsuccessfully attempted<\/a> to make the town\u2019s leaders reveal the full amount taxpayers had lost on Yo-yo Homes in the past decade, with the council\u2019s Labour housing chief branding it a \u201cwaste of time\u201d.<\/p>\n Do you know more about this story? Email Big Issue reporter greg.barradale@bigissue.com<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this Christmas.<\/strong><\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 or support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0subscription<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and help people work their way out of poverty with dignity.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe also know people benefitted from massive discounts and then sold it on, and it\u2019s now been let…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,7100,393,4884,6333,257,190842,14252,16,15,190843],"class_list":{"0":"post-610946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-councils","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-right-to-buy","15":"tag-sadiq-khan","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-yo-yo-homes"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115659548625225425","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/article-CTA-Desktop-800x250-1.png\")
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