Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has insisted that Right to Buy home sales into the private market should not be allowed to deplete the country’s social housing stock.

“People should have the Right to Buy,” Rayner told Sky News, “but we can’t have a situation where taxpayers invest in social housing — and then see them going out the back door, heavily discounted, as housing associations and councils are unable to replace them.”

The Labour government has begun a consolation on how the scheme, that allows people living in social housing to buy their homes, should continue.

Rayner says the consolation is part of the government’s plans to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years, adding that social housing will be a key part of that mix.

The country built around 1 million homes over the last five years.

Last year, 10,896 homes were sold through Right to Buy while only 3,447 were replaced. Since 1991, the scheme has seen 24,000 social homes move into the private sector, according to official figures.

Tenants can buy their homes if they have lived in social housing for three years, at a maximum discount of £102,400 across England, or £136,400 in London.

The Right to Buy scheme was introduced in 1980 by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as one of her flagship reforms.

Since 1980, there have been 2,026,893 home sales under the Right to Buy scehme, according to Department for Housing & Communities data in March.