Over the last decade, 23,061 homes have been sold under the Right to Buy (RTB) scheme to council tenants, according to London lettings and estate agent Benham and Reeves.

Benham and Reeves’ research shows that while this figure equates to 5.6% of total local authority-owned dwellings stock, it represents a total market value of £3.4bn.

However, in the City of London, only 62 homes have been sold via the scheme, accounting for 14.4% of all council homes located there. 

Newham ranks high with RTB seeing 10.2% of council-owned homes sold, alongside Barking and Dagenham with 9.8% and Tower Hamlets with 9.5%.

Redbridge also made the top five, with 9.4% of total council homes in the borough being sold via the scheme in the last decade. 

Data found that the highest number of council-owned homes have been sold in Barking and Dagenham, where RTB sales total 1,883 over the last 10 years. 

Meanwhile, Greenwich has seen a similar number sold at 1,868, followed by Newham with 1,716, Southwark with 1,702 and Tower Hamlets with 1,187.

The data also looked at the highest RTB sold value with the London Borough of Southwark sitting top with the scheme’s sales generating £3254.5m since 2012. 

Greenwich ranked second with £223.5m, Barking and Dagenham with £222.3m and Newham with £201.7m. 

Islington is another borough to see a high sold value of RTB homes to council tenants, generating £198m since 2012. 

Benham and Reeves director Marc von Grundherr says: “RTB may have been an incredibly successful initiative when it comes to giving council tenants the ability to climb the ladder and many have seized the opportunity to do so in the last ten years.”

“Of course, in doing so these local authorities have essentially shot themselves in the foot, as it severely reduces the social housing stock available to them to satisfy the huge demand from those who are still in desperate need of it. The irony is, that it then costs these councils more, as they need to rely on renting from the private sector at a higher price to house those in need.”

“As a result, we’ve now seen some councils start to reverse this trend and reclaim formerly council-owned homes from their owners. Which does beg the question that, having made some quite sizeable sums from selling in the first place, why London’s local authorities haven’t invested appropriately in the provision of new homes for council tenants?”