Only 1.6% of households in the pilot to extend the Right to Buy to housing associations have applied to purchase their social home, Inside Housing has revealed.

Umbrella group the National Housing Federation has confirmed to the trade magazine that 790 applications have been received by the five social landlords trialing the policy.

Housing associations L&Q, Sovereign, Riverside, Saffron Housing and Thames Valley launched the schemes for expressions of interest last November and started taking applications in January this year.

In February, Sheffield Hallam University released a survey of 7,000 housing association tenants which showed that one in three said they were likely to take up the Right to Buy offer.

The Communities and Local Government committee published a report last October which suggested 170,000 housing association households might take up the offer to buy their social home.

A CLG spokesperson said this week: “We have always been clear that this is a small sample to test the new scheme before we roll it out nationally.”

The policy to extend the Right to Buy to housing associations – which allows tenants to buy their social homes at a discount from their social landlord – was ratified in the Housing and Planning Bill which received Royal Assent in May.

In the trial, social tenants have the Right to Buy after ten years’ residency, but when rolled out, the scheme will require only three years.