According to Angela Rayner, ministers have the authority to prevent the sale of new council homes in England under the right-to-buy program.

The government will impose limitations on new social housing "so we aren't losing that stock," according to the deputy prime minister.

Tenants residing in council houses have been able to purchase them, sometimes at a substantial discount, since Margaret Thatcher introduced the right to buy program in 1980.

Nearly two million houses have been sold as a result of the program's extension and encouragement by successive Conservative prime ministers.

Initially commended for raising working-class house ownership rates, the strategy has more recently been accused of making homelessness worse.

Charities and campaigners have called for the scheme to be suspended while more social housing is built.

Rayner told the BBC she did not want more council homes “leaving the system”.

“We’ll be putting restrictions on them so that we aren’t losing those homes … we’re not losing that stock,” she said.

She added that England was facing a “catastrophic emergency situation” in relation to homelessness.

The deputy prime minister bought her own home under the right to buy scheme in 2007.

The government plans to launch a consultation on the policy this autumn. Labour’s election manifesto committed to “increasing protections on newly built social housing”.

Labour has promised to build 1.5m houses over the course of this parliament, but has not put a figure on social homes.

The right to buy scheme ended in Scotland in 2016 and in Wales in 2019. Since entering office, Labour has said the discount buyers in England can receive will be cut to between £16,000 and £38,000, depending on location.

In the budget, Rachel Reeves announced measures to allow councils to keep all the money they receive from social housing sales, a policy the last Conservative government followed for two years until March 2024.

In May Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said right to buy should be suspended for new properties and that the policy caused the city’s housing crisis to get “worse every year”.

David Cameron relaunched right to buy during the coalition government in 2012 and increased the discount at which tenants could buy their council houses. In 2022, Boris Johnson extended the scheme to tenants who rented their homes from housing associations.