National statistics

Social housing sales and demolitions 2021-22

Updated 26 January 2023

Applies to England

Social housing is defined in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 sections 68-77. The term covers low-cost rental, low cost home ownership and accommodation owned by registered providers as previously defined in the Housing Act 1996.

1. Headline figures

In 2021-22 there were:

24,932 sales of social housing dwellings, an increase of 45% compared to 2020-21, and a 3% increase on 2019-20.

18,881 sales of social housing were low-cost rental dwellings, an increase of 47% compared to 2020-21, though 4% lower than in 2019-20.

6,051 sales of social housing through low-cost home ownership equity reaching 100%, an increase of 39% on 2020-21, and the highest recorded number since this data started being collected in 2001-02.

2,757 demolitions of social housing dwellings, a decrease of 32% compared to 2020-21, and the lowest value reported since data started being collected in 1997-98.

2. Introduction

This statistical release presents National Statistics on annual sales and demolitions of social housing in England. It contains information about the dwellings owned by private registered providers (PRPs) collected by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) in the Statistical Data Return (SDR) and information about dwellings owned by local authorities (LAs) collected by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) in the Local Authority Housing Statistics (LAHS). There is also supplementary information provided which is sourced from the CORE sales dataset, collected by DLUHC.

This release is the summary of social housing sales and demolitions. More detailed reports also accompany this release:

• Right to Buy sales (including preserved and voluntary Right to Buy)

• Shared Ownership sales

This statistical release reports on the sale of social housing, focussing on the sales of low-cost rental dwellings and the 100% staircased sales of shared ownership properties ^{[footnote 1]}. It does not report on the initial sale (or first tranche) of shared ownership dwellings, but characteristics of these purchases can be found in the shared ownership sales release) and the various live tables which accompany this statistical release.

3. Social housing sales

In 2021-22 there were 24,932 sales of social housing dwellings in England, an increase of 45% compared to 2020-21. This was 3% higher than in 2019-20. Of these 24,932 sales, 11,164 (45%) were of local authority owned stock and 13,768 (55%) were of stock owned by private registered providers.

Figure 1.1 Total sales of social housing from 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2022, by provider

Social housing can be sold through a variety of different schemes or on the open market. The majority of sales are completed through the Right to Buy scheme for local authority housing and the preserved/voluntary Right to Buy schemes for PRP owned housing. These three schemes accounted for 56% of sales in 2021-22 and have accounted for 91% of all recorded sales since April 1980.

The next largest contributor to total sales are the 100% staircased sales ^{[footnote 2]} of Shared Ownership properties (LCHO sales). These accounted for 24% of total sales in 2021-22 and, based on the data available, accounted for over 19% of all sales since April 2011.

Other sales to sitting tenants, including those under Right to Acquire and Social HomeBuy, accounted for 7% of sales in 2021-22 while all other sales, including sales to the open market, accounted for 12% of all sales in 2021-22.

Figure 1.2 Total sales of social housing from 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2022, by type of sale

4. Social housing sales by region

The number of sales of social housing varies significantly by region and is driven largely by the number of Right to Buy sales. Therefore, changes to the Right to Buy scheme have a large impact on regional variations in sales. For more in-depth analysis of these sales, please see the accompanying Right to Buy dedicated section. Due to the variation in stock sizes, the graph below presents sales per 1,000 stock ^{[footnote 3]}.

There were 5.9 sales per 1,000 stock on average in 2021-22. This is 11% lower than the peak of 6.7 in 2015-2016, which followed the reinvigoration of the Right to Buy scheme in 2012 ^{[footnote 4]} but a 44% increase from the low point of 4.1 sales per 1,000 stock in 2020-21.

Figure 1.3 Sales of social housing per 1,000 stock from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2022, by English region

In 2021-22 the total sales per 1,000 stock ranged from 5.0 in East of England to 7.4 in East Midlands, with an average across England of 5.9 sales per 1,000 stock.

Compared to last year, Yorkshire and the Humber’s sales increased the most (up 2.4 sales per 1,000 stock) and London’s sales increased the least (up 1.4 sales per 1,000 stock). In some regions, the total number of sales in 2021-22 was greater than that of 2019-20, which could be an effect of sales being delayed by the pandemic.

Between April 2013 and March 2017, London saw more Right to Buy sales as a proportion of its housing stock than any other region, averaging 8 sales per 1,000 stock in the 4-year period. Since 2017, the East Midlands and West Midlands have seen the most sales as a proportion of stock, coinciding with the introduction in 2016 of the Voluntary Right to Buy ^{[footnote 5]} pilot scheme in those areas.

Across the regions of England, the main provider of social housing varies substantially, with PRPs having a larger proportion of stock than local authorities in all the regions of England except the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber. However, the proportion of PRP housing stock varies considerably even those regions where it has the majority of stock, for example 52% of social housing stock in London and 86% in the North West is PRP stock.

The graph below shows the number of sales by provider type in each of the regions in England. Sales of PRP stock have been consistently higher than sales of local authority stock in the North West, South East and South West. Local authority stock sales have been consistently higher than sales of PRP stock in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber.

Figure 1.4 Total sales of social housing from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2022, by provider and English region

For the 6,051 low-cost home ownership sales in 2021-22, 33% of these transactions were in London and a further 21% were in the South East. With 99% of these sales from PRPs, this regional distribution has remained similar over the past few years.

5. Demolitions

In 2021-22 there were 2,757 demolitions of social housing dwellings, a decrease of 32% compared to 2020-21. Of these 2,757 demolitions, 1,340 (49%) were of local authority stock and 1,417 (51%) were of PRP stock. These demolitions represent 0.08% and 0.05% of the stock at 31 March 2021 of LAs and PRPs respectively.

Historically, the number of demolitions of local authority-owned stock has been much higher than of PRP stock, peaking at just over 14,500 in 2001-02. Since then, the trend has been generally downwards, in line with that for demolitions in the social housing sector overall. Demolitions of PRP stock have fluctuated more, and in 2021-22 decreased by 40% compared to 2020-21.

Figure 1.5: Demolitions of social housing stock, from April 1997 to 31 March 2022 by provider

Data for demolitions of local authority owned social housing stock is available by region and district since 2011-12. Due to the large variation in the total social housing stock and the type of stock owner in each region, the graph below presents demolitions as a proportion of total stock. It shows that between April 2011 and March 2016 the North East demolished a larger proportion of its total housing stock than all other regions, peaking during 2012-13 with 6.4 demolitions per 1,000 stock. Yorkshire and the Humber recorded only 7 demolitions in 2021-22.

From April 2016 to March 2022, London has demolished a larger proportion of its stock than any other region, an average of 1.7 demolitions per 1,000 stock in those 6 years. The East Midlands has demolished, proportionally, the least stock, averaging 0.6 demolitions per 1,000 stock between April 2016 and March 2022.

Figure 1.6 Demolitions of social housing per 1,000 stock from 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2022 by English region

6. Comparing sales and demolitions to new supply

This section compares data on sales and demolitions of low-cost rental social housing with statistics on new supply of low-cost rental dwellings ^{[footnote 6]} provided by local authorities and private registered providers. This data is presented as a time series from 1997-98, though should only be used for comparison of general trends. For experimental statistics which calculate net figures for the supply of affordable housing supply for rent for the last two years, please see the next section.

The sales and demolitions figures do not include 100% staircased Low-Cost Home Ownership sales. The figures for new supply are a subset of the total presented in Live Table 1000, and include not just new build, but also acquisitions of stock that were not previously used as either affordable or social housing.

For 2021-22, 38,668 new affordable housing units for rent were delivered, which represented 65% of the total of 59,175 new affordable housing provided during that year. Local authorities and private registered providers delivered 37,281 of these new units (98%), with the remaining 2% attributable to non-registered or unknown providers.

While sales and demolitions are expected to be the two main sources of losses to social housing stock, the data presented here do not account for all losses. There are a few reasons for this:

• they only cover sales and demolitions of social housing stock held by local authorities in their Housing Revenue Accounts and stock held by large private registered providers

• they do not cover non-registered providers or those where provider was unknown

• they do not cover all affordable housing intended for sale, such as Shared Ownership

• they do not cover all disposals of existing stock, for example losses through conversions and changes of use

The chart below shows these data since 1997-98. Between 1997-98 and 2008-09, the combined sales and demolitions were consistently higher than new supply of affordable housing for rent. By contrast, in all but 4 of the 13 years since 2008-09, new supply of affordable housing for rent has exceeded losses through sales and demolitions. However, this comparison cannot be used to calculate comprehensive net figures for the supply of affordable housing supply for rent, as not all losses are covered, as explained above.

Figure 1.7 Comparison of sales and demolitions to new supply of low cost rental stock, England 1 April 1997 to 31 March 2022

The change in the pattern was due to several factors, including the sharp decrease in sales since 2003-04; the general decrease in the number of demolitions since 2001-02, and the investments through different affordable homes programmes since 2008. The source data for this chart is available in live tables 678, 684 and in the affordable housing supply statistics open data.

This is also consistent with trends in stock estimates presented in Live Table 104 which show an increase in the combined local authority and private registered provider stock since 2008. Estimates in that table follow the Census definition of “dwelling” and therefore do not match exactly data on the number of units (which include bedspaces as well as dwellings) available for affordable or social housing, as well as a specific impact of bedspace adjustment estimation methods.

7. Net supply of affordable housing for rent

This section presents experimental statistics which estimate a net measure of the supply of affordable housing for rent by summarising the in- and outflows to this sector of the housing stock in England. Experimental statistics are official statistics that are in the development phase and not yet fully developed. Users should be aware that experimental statistics will potentially have a wider degree of uncertainty. The limitations of the statistics will be clearly explained within the release.

This is a first step to address a request from the July 2020 recommendation by the Housing Communities and Local Government select committee on publishing net supply of affordable housing by tenure ^{[footnote 7]}.

For 2021-22, the figures show that local authority affordable housing stock for rent decreased by nearly 7,200 while the rental stock owned by private registered providers increased by just over 18,900, an estimated net increase of 11,700 affordable homes for rent for these providers combined. In the previous year, there was an estimated net increase of 11,200 affordable homes for rent.

Figure 1.8 Summary of net supply of affordable housing for rent, 2020-2022

Comparing these estimates with changes in stock figures between years show some differences, which are likely due to a combination of the following:

• limited or unavailable data for some gains and losses of existing affordable housing, such as conversions (of houses into flats or vice-versa) and changes of tenure (for example from social rent to shared ownership)

• not all affordable housing is included – only affordable housing for rent is included (those used for social rent, affordable rent, London affordable rent and intermediate rent). This excludes affordable housing for ownership, such as shared ownership, affordable home ownership and First Homes, as well as cases where tenure is unknown

• not all providers of affordable housing are covered – only local authority and private registered providers are included, while non-registered providers and units where the provider is unknown are not

• the data on losses do not cover local authority stock owned outside a Housing Revenue Account (which accounts for less than 0.5% of local authority stock^{[footnote 8]}) or stock from private register providers that own fewer than 1,000 stock (which accounts for around 4% of private registered provider stock^{[footnote 9]})

• the data are compiled across different sources^{[footnote 10]}, which while similar, occasionally do not cover exactly the same categories and definitions ^{[footnote 11]}

For further details and background please check the relevant section in technical notes accompanying this release.

The graph below presents the detailed breakdown of net affordable housing for rent for 2020-21 and 2021-22 at England level and breaks the data down by category of provider. See the data used for the graph.

Figure 1.9 Detailed breakdown of net supply of affordable housing for rent, 2020-2022

As these are experimental statistics, we are particularly keen to receive feedback via housing.statistics@levellingup.gov.uk on whether readers find them relevant.

8. Related statistics

Affordable Housing Supply in England 2021-22: A statistical release by DLUHC which reports on the number of affordable housing dwellings started and completed from 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022. These statistics contain information on the number of Shared Ownership dwellings completed, which can be used as a proxy for the number of Shared Ownership dwellings sold in 2021-22. The live tables accompanying this release report on affordable housing supply from 1991-92 to 2021-22.

Private registered provider social housing stock in England: A statistical release by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) based on data sourced from the Statistical Data Return on an annual basis, it provides details of private registered provider owned and managed stock, details rents reported for low-cost rental (social and affordable rents) and provides an overview of the PRP sector including details on stock losses and gains, and vacancies.

Local Authority Housing Statistics: A statistical dataset released by DLUHC which shows the district-level data collected annually from all local authorities. Parts of the dataset are used as a source for this release, but it is also used to report on dwelling stock, condition of stock, rents and arrears and supply of new social housing

Right to Buy sales and replacements: A statistical release by DLUHC which reports on the number of Right to Buy sales^{[footnote 12]} of social housing and the number of properties started or acquired to replace these stock funded through the receipts of these sales. The data is sourced from the Pooling of Capital Receipts return which is collected by DLUHC from all local authorities which have a Housing Revenue Account. Up to the end of 2020-21 this was a quarterly release, but from 2021-22 it is an annual release with quarterly management information published. The 2021-22 annual release is due to be published in June/July 2022.

1. Properties once occupied under relevant shared ownership or low cost home ownership arrangements but where the occupier has acquired a 100% share of a shared ownership property or repaid an equity loan on a shared equity property in full. ↩

2. Properties once occupied under relevant shared ownership or low-cost home ownership arrangements but where the occupier has acquired a 100% share of a shared ownership property or repaid an equity loan on a shared equity property in full. ↩

3. Stock is reported as of 31 March at the end of the previous financial year. ↩

4. More information on the reinvigoration of the Right to Buy scheme can be found in the accompanying Right to Buy document. ↩

5. In 2016-17, Voluntary Right to Buy (VRtB) was introduced as a small-scale pilot and then widened to a Midlands regional pilot in 2018. This gave the Right to Buy to tenants of private registered providers who previously were not eligible for Preserved Right to Buy. More information can be found in the Voluntary Right to Buy Midlands pilot: evaluation. ↩

6. The term low-cost rental is used in these statistics to denote any stock which meets the definition of low-cost rental accommodation in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. It must be available for rent, with a rent below market value, and in accordance with the rules designed to ensure that it is made available to people whose needs are not adequately served by the commercial housing market. ↩

7. See technical notes for further detail. ↩

8. Section A of Local Authority Housing Statistics. ↩

9. Key facts section of the 2021-22 private registered providers social housing stock in England summary data release. ↩

10. These data are taken from Affordable Housing Supply statistics data release and the Local Authority Housing Statistics dataset released by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Statistical Data Return published by the Regulator of Social Housing. ↩

11. We are working with local authorities and the Regulator of Social Housing (which collects data from private registered providers) to collect the data necessary to provide a more comprehensive estimate, including by tenure. We hope to present this in a future release of this publication. ↩

12. These statistics relate only to those sales by local authorities under the Right to Buy scheme which are subject to the Right to Buy receipt pooling requirements. More detail can be found in the definitions section of their technical notes. ↩