Housing association tenants being given the Right to Buy their homes should not have discounts. Instead, they should be offered equity loans.
The proposal comes from cross bench peer Lord Bob Kerslake, who is tabling an amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill.
Under current proposals, housing association tenants would be given a discount of up to £77,900 outside London and £103,900 in London.
The expansion of Right Buy is due to come into effect next month.
The policy, as it currently applies to council homes, is also due to come under the spotlight next Monday in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme.
Called Council House Millionaires, it is set to highlight the properties bought at discounts by their former tenants, who then move out and use their ex-homes as buy-to-let cash cows.
The programme is also set to expose companies that encourage existing tenants to cash in.
Comments (4)
The other day there was an article on here about DSS tenants, and the issues surrounding them. These issues are a direct consequence of the Right to Buy swallowing up all the housing that was built for those who need help affording it, for whatever reason.
Barmy legislation, and I can’t believe they think extending it to HA tenants is a good idea.
I do not have too much of a problem with tenants wanting to buy social housing provided they pay the full open market rate for it. Help could be by way of finance or better still selling a share in the property as a shared ownership scheme with rights to buy further tranches at the market rate at the time of purchase. Any money raised this way MUST be put back into building NEW dwellings for social housing sector (not buying existing stock) so it provides, not only, further social housing but adds to the overall housing stock of the country.
love it how the Govt just ‘gives’ our money away.
Thank goodness someone has got their feet on the ground. This is an intelligent amendment to flawed legislation that would otherwise have severe social and practical implications; The inequality of giving some in society a £78k or £104k leg up over their contemporaries for no other reason than circumstance is lunacy.
Giving away a properties, effectively at 25% discount, creates an unsustainable 125% property replacement headache for Housing associations; they will lose the ability to replace stock at the rate of 1 property in every 4 purchased through right to buy. In a market where supply is a long way short of demand that is madness too.