Councils are not to blame

Re: “Right to buy sales could plug decent homes gap 10 times over” (12 March, page 14). For a substantial part of the time that right to buy has generated receipts, councils were actively discouraged from using them for housing.

In addition, particularly in the early days, local authorities found it hard to see the point of investing money in building houses that they might then be obliged to sell off at a discount, leaving them with even more debt.