Labour mayor Andy Burnham yesterday urged the Government to let him suspend the Right to Buy scheme in Greater Manchester.
He blamed the policy for making the housing crisis ‘worse every year’ as he pledged to press pause in his region.
Mr Burnham vowed to build 10,000 homes across Greater Manchester after he was elected for a third term in last week’s mayoral elections.
Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy, introduced in 1980, allows council tenants to buy homes at a discount, helping them get on the housing ladder.
Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner benefited from the former prime minister’s scheme when she purchased her home in 2007.
Labour mayor Andy Burnham (pictured) yesterday urged the Government to let him suspend the Right to Buy scheme in Greater Manchester
Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner (pictured) benefited from the former prime minister’s scheme when she purchased her home in 2007
But she has vowed to review elements of the policy if Labour wins the next election, claiming the discounts offered are too high and council housing stock was not being replaced.
Tories have since questioned whether Ms Rayner paid capital gains tax and completed official forms correctly.
She has said she will step down as deputy if police find her to have committed a crime.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Burnham yesterday said: ‘I’m saying to Whitehall and Westminster – you need to allow us to suspend Right to Buy…
‘If we don’t, trying to solve the housing crisis is like trying to fill a bath but with the plug out because you build new homes but lose them at the other end.’