Labour confirms Margaret Thatcher’s flagship Right to Buy scheme might be in the reduction of in subsequent week’s finances

Margaret Thatcher‘s flagship Right to Buy scheme will be cut back in the Budget, the Treasury confirmed last night.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who used the scheme to buy her own council house at a discount before entering parliament, said cuts were needed to protect the existing stock and to help drive a ‘social housing boom’.

Ms Rayner is thought to be planning to cut the discount available to social housing tenants from a maximum of 70 per cent to just 25 per cent. 

Tenants will have to have lived in their home for up to a decade before gaining the right to buy – more than treble the current three-year limit.

Ms Rayner is also considering suspending the Right to Buy altogether for newly-built council homes.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said cuts were needed to protect the existing stock and to help drive a ‘social housing boom’

The policy led to more than 2.5million council houses being sold at discounted rates and – despite fierce opposition from some on the Left – allowed some of Britain’s poorest people to have a home of their own

It was the policy that transformed the lives of millions of Britons and helped to propel Margaret Thatcher to three successive terms in Downing Street

The moves will cost those seeking to get on the housing ladder tens of thousands of pounds – and force many to stay renting.

The Treasury said the changes will make the Right to Buy scheme ‘fairer and more sustainable’. 

Councils will keep 100 per cent of sale proceeds to invest in new housing.