North Kesteven sells off more homes than it builds this year but still on track to build 500 in a decade

The district council has built less new affordable homes than it has sold off under the Government’s ‘Right To Buy’ scheme in the last year.

Now, it is faced with changes to regulations making it easier for tenants to buy their properties, officers reported to NKDC’s executive board on Thursday.

But the authority says it has added more than 150 homes, replacing 69 lost in the last five years.

Coun Stewart Ogden, Executive Board Member with responsibility for Housing, told The Standard: “Right to Buy is a statutory right under the Housing Act and is therefore not something that the council has any control over.”

He said: “In the face of changes to the regulations which make it easier for tenants to acquire their properties through Right to Buy, the council is pursuing its ambitious commitment to deliver 500 new homes over ten years. Over the current year we anticipate completion of a further 39 much-needed homes.”

He accepted there was a net loss of three properties in the last year as 22 were built and 25 sold as the council concentrated on major repair programmes in 2015-16. But he said in the previous year, the council added 51 new houses against a loss of 15 - one of only two authorities in England building more than it lost.