[user104658]

If one sold really did equal another built there wouldn't be a problem, but it's never going to work out like that, so it'll just be a repeat of what's happened over the last 3 decades. Genuine council tenants buy and live in their house, which is in theory fine, but they only stay for ten to twenty years. Then the relatively small mortgage is paid off, so they either sell up and the house is bought by a private landlord, or they decide to have a pop at renting it out themselves to fund a second mortgage on a new house.

The result is everyone else stuck in renting, paying bloated prices for ex-council properties. The only realistic prospect for many first time buyers ends up being to get into a council house and then buy it... Except that there are hardly any left.

It's just a mess really. I do understand it in theory - you're in a council house, you work your way up financially, you get to a stage where you can afford your own home but you don't want to move because you have friends / family / kids schools / a life where you are. But the only way it works realistically, is for the property to only be buyable at market value (could even be bottom end valuation - but no discounts) and the money goes straight into a pot used to build a new council home in the same council area immediately.