星空传媒

Its report, The Impact of Right to Buy, attributed the high cost to London finance companies that encouraged tenants to buy their homes and sell them on at a huge profit.

These tenants tended to be those who had planned to move out of the social sector without exercising their right to buy.

The loss of a property, which would otherwise have gone to someone on the council waiting list, would result in temporary accommodation costs being born predominantly by the housing benefit system.

The ALG's calculation of the costs of right to buy included: the amount of discount on the purchase price; the savings to a council's housing revenue account; the loss of rental income; and the use of the capital receipt to repay some of the council's outstanding debt.