Whichever new prime minister emerges, current Conservative politics makes it unlikely we’ll see a significant new expansion of social rented housing any time soon. But not so long ago another Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, talked of the need for “a new generation of council homes to help fix our broken housing market”. Opposition parties and the UK’s devolved governments remain committed to a large increase in public housing. Meanwhile, there are still an estimated 1.6m households in England with unmet housing needs best provided by social renting. As we plan for the future, now is a good time to ask what we can learn from past social housing schemes.

The most important lesson is simply that we can build social housing at scale when the political will exists. Between 1945 and 1979, the country built an average of 126,000 council homes annually. The largest number built in a single year, 219,000, was achieved by a Conservative government in 1953. At times, that pace and scale could be problematic. Financial constraints frequently limited the best of what might have been achieved. There were perhaps too many poorly constructed high-rise dwellings, too many large and anonymous suburbs, but the overriding goal – when, even in 1948, 54% of British households lacked their own bathroom – was to house all our people decently and clear the slums.

In April 2012, the coalition government increased the maximum cash discount to £75,000 across England, rising to £100,000 in March 2013 for tenants in London.

Since its introduction in 1980, almost 2m councils houses have been lost under the right-to-buy. To counter claims that the policy is decimating social housing stock, the government introduced its one-for-one replacement principle that each social home sold should be replaced with a similar one.

According to the Department for Communities and Local Government, all additional homes sold as a result of the increased right-to-buy discounts will be replaced with a new affordable rented home.

But what does it really mean? Not only does this apply to homes additional to projected sales, but houses currently rented at cheaper, social rates (normally around 40-60% of market rate) can be replaced with homes let at 80% of market value under the government’s affordable rent model. There is also no commitment that homes will be replaced locally, nor are there specifications on size.

Councils, which became self-financing last year, can only use 30% of receipts towards building new properties and must spend receipts within three years.

The Local Government Association says that the government is putting councils in “an impossible situation” by dictating the discount they have to offer.