Portsmouth council to buy back 500 homes in the city that were sold under right to buy scheme

Portsmouth City Council is spending £100m on a scheme to buy former council homes that were previously sold under the right to buy system, as well as other suitable properties - with the aim of buying 500 between 2020 and 2025.

Since the cash was approved in 2020, 39 homes have been bought - adding to 59 that had been purchased since 2016.

The council's housing boss, Councillor Darren Sanders, explained that buying back homes was needed due to limited space in Portsmouth.

Councillor Darren Sanders said: 'This is one of the biggest programmes to create new council housing in the country but we are not building anything.

'Although building new council homes is important we can't build our way out of a crisis here.

'A lot of family homes were bought under the right to buy scheme and we are now buying them back as the tenants don't think they can live there any longer. This means we can increase the number of homes Portsmouth people can afford.'

Details of the scheme came to light after concerns were raised about the sale of eight council properties at auction.

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However, it was revealed the homes had 'numerous building defects' and their sale - for £1,680,000 - would be used to buy more homes in better condition.

Housing activist and Labour councillor, Cal Corkery, raised the issue last year leading to a public council meeting being held to discuss the homes.

At the meeting Cllr Corkery said: 'There's interest in how social housing stock is managed. I was quite surprised that homes were being sold off and this wasn't being reported in public.

'It came to light because people saw it coming up in auctions.'

He added the council must 'ensure they (the bought back homes) are rented to people on the waiting list.'

The £100m scheme is separate from Portsmouth council's drive to build new council housing including at Brewery House in Southsea and a 22-storey block in Arundel Street.

The homes will be a mix of houses, flats, maisonettes and bungalows.

Cash was made available after government removed a borrowing cap on councils' housing accounts in 2018.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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