Lib Dems Call on Reading Borough Council To Act on Housing Crisis As Social Housing Bill Passes Through Parliament

Reading Liberal Democrats are calling on Reading Borough Council to use every tool available to protect and expand the town's dwindling social housing stock, as the government's Social Housing Bill makes its way through the House of Lords.

The call comes as new figures show nearly 5,000 households are on Reading's social housing waiting list, with 305 currently in temporary accommodation and 177 who have been waiting more than a decade for a secure home. The Council itself acknowledges it houses fewer than one in ten of those registered each year.

Cllr Anne Thompson, Liberal Democrat councillor for Tilehurst Ward, said:

"Reading Borough Council's own spokesperson admitted earlier this year that the Right to Buy scheme 'had a significant impact on stocks' in Reading. That is an understatement. Today, there are nearly 5,000 households on the waiting list, 305 of them in temporary accommodation right now, and the Council houses less than 10% of those registered each year. People are waiting years — in some cases over a decade — for a secure home.

"The Social Housing Bill, introduced in May, is a step in the right direction. Requiring tenants to wait 10 years before applying to buy, exempting newly built social homes for 35 years, scrapping the Tory-era rules that would have forced Councils to sell off high-value homes, and letting Councils combine Right to Buy receipts with grant funding are all genuinely welcome measures. Reading Borough Council's own finance officers have already written Right to Buy sales down to near-zero in their long-term budget, which tells you how significant these changes are.

"But the Liberal Democrats have always believed that Councils should be able to go further. Our 2024 manifesto committed to giving local authorities the power to end Right to Buy entirely in their areas — because in places like Reading, where nearly 2.8 million homes have been sold nationally since 1981, and social housing has fallen from 31% to just 17% of all households, reform is not enough. What we actually need is local discretion to stop the scheme altogether.

"The Bill still has to pass Parliament, and every month of delay matters. National figures show Right to Buy sales rose 7% in 2024-25 as tenants rushed to apply under the old, more generous rules. Reading has 492 new Council homes in the pipeline and over £335 million in housing debt to service. We need this legislation through quickly — and then we need to go further still.

"Reading Borough Council also needs to be as ambitious as the scale of this crisis demands. From 2026-27, Councils can for the first time combine Right to Buy receipts with Social and Affordable Homes Programme grant funding — a new tool that could mean more Council homes built than the 362 currently planned. The LGA is calling for Councils to retain receipts indefinitely rather than within a fixed 10-year window, to give complex regeneration schemes the time they need. Reading should be pressing the Government on both fronts. The waiting list will not wait."