The housing policy agenda has moved on significantly since the Right to Buy (RTB) was introduced in 1980. Scotland has seen the most progressive and far reaching homelessness policy in Western Europe, and the social and housing landscape has undergone significant transformation.

Since its introduction, over 400,000 public sector homes have been sold in Scotland through Right to Buy. The majority of these have been from local authority housing stock, however, housing built by registered social landlords since 2002 is now also included and the Right to Buy is due to be extended to all property of registered social landlords in 2012.

The transfer of such a large stock of dwellings from public to private use has inevitably had major implications for the availability of public sector housing. Shelter believes that the Right to Buy is out of step with current housing policies, especially the insistence that local authorities drive housing policy through the Local Housing Strategy. Without major reform, the Right to Buy will undermine the efforts being made towards housing policy objectives.