In the year to April 2013 the scheme was taken up by 8,398 council and housing association tenants, more than double the figure from the previous year and the highest level since 2007, Hopkins said. A further 2,149 Right to Buy sales took place in the first quarter of 2013, taking the total above 10,000.
Hopkins said that the scheme will create more affordable homes and that the increase in uptake reflects the rising demand from tenants to become homeowners.
Under the scheme, which according to the Government has so far generated £173 million, councils are given three years to use receipts from additional sales to fund development of new affordable homes. Councils which have already started building homes using those receipts include Barking, Bassetlaw, Leicester and Wigan.
"For years Right to Buy was allowed to wither on the vine, with ever-decreasing discounts leaving the prospect of home ownership out of reach for far too many social tenants," said Hopkins. "But our reinvigorated scheme has changed that, with increased discounts helping more than 10,000 new homeowners onto the property ladder."
"And because we’ve committed to using the additional money raised towards funding new affordable homes for rent, we’re also getting Britain building and will soon have the fastest rate of affordable housebuilding for two decades," he said.
