Tenants are exercising their right to buy nearly three times faster than the rate at which affordable housing is being built, according to figures released this week
Homelessness charity Shelter has joined the campaign to have the right to buy suspended in areas of high demand. Its study of problems caused by the right to buy found the discounts given to tenants in the past five years add up to £4.5bn – more than the government has invested in homes to replace the ones lost in the process.

Since the introduction of right to buy in 1980, almost 1.5 million homes have been bought, and social housing stock has shrunk 20% with more than 750,000 homes not yet replaced, Shelter complained. In 2001/02 52,000 homes were lost under the scheme and only 18,000 affordable homes were built.

Shelter estimates the cost of building social housing to compensate for that lost through right to buy in London and the South-east would be more than £1bn over the next five years.

Shelter external affairs director Ben Jackson said: "Shelter is not opposed to the scheme in principle, but the priority must be to stem the loss of valuable housing, particularly in London and the South-east where the shortages are most severe and thousands of families are experiencing the misery of homelessness."

The need for affordable housing has increased since the policy's introduction in 1980, Shelter said. At that time there were fewer than 5000 homeless people and families living in temporary accommodation in England, compared with 81,250 today, it explained.

The charity called on the government to temporarily withdraw right-to-buy discounts in high-demand areas, carry out a policy review, and put a stop to abuses of the policy. Tenants must be able to accumulate assets but not at the cost of existing affordable housing stock, it said.

Civil servants at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister are undertaking a review of abuses of the right-to-buy system, which housing minister Lord Rooker has slammed as "losing a valuable resource down the plughole".