A major shake up of Right to Buy policy by the government looks set to prevent more social housing tenants from purchasing their own homes.
Under fresh proposals, tenants may have to wait more than 10 years to purchase their homes and those living in newly built social homes may never be able to buy.
The government also wants to cut Right to Buy discounts back to pre-2012 levels and discourage social tenants from selling the homes they have purchased.
Housing secretary Angela Rayner said its changes will address the loss of social housing, but the Conservatives said Labour is “limiting aspiration and social mobility”.
Since the Right to Buy policy was introduced in 1980, under Margaret Thatcher’s government, there has been an annual net loss in social housing stock as successive governments have failed to replace the housing that has been acquired or bulldozed.
Analysis by Shelter reveals that there are 1.4 million fewer English households in social housing than there were in 1980.
“Too many social homes have been sold off before they can be replaced, which has directly contributed to the worst housing crisis in living memory,” said Rayner. “We cannot fix the crisis without addressing this issue – it’s like trying to fill a bath when the plug’s not in.”
Among the new measures the government seeks to introduce, it wants to reduce the maximum discounts for tenants using Right to Buy to between £16,000 and £38,000 depending on the council – bringing them back to pre-2012 levels.
Under the current rules, tenants have to repay this discount to the council if they then sell the property on within five years of buying. The government wants to extend this to 10 years.
Shadow housing secretary and former head of Hunters, Kevin Hollinrake, accused the government of “pulling up the drawbridge on home ownership and limiting aspiration and social mobility”.
“The Right to Buy has helped millions into home ownership. It has given something back to families who worked hard, paid their rent, and played by the rules,” he said.
Rayner has made social housing her mission in government, having previously told the press that she wants to see “the biggest wave of council housing in a generation and that is what I want to be measured on”.
Should be renamed Rush to buy!
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How ironic. Rayner and her partner both benefited by buying their Council houses at a discount and famously she got away with paying CGT when she sold, having lived in his house for some years.
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Why does right to buy exist at all? A good idea perhaps initially, it has run its course. Social housing should be subject to strict criteria such as income levels and should be reviewed regularly. Anyone who doesn’t fit criteria should be made to leave, perhaps with a small incentive, that way the house becomes available for another social tenant rather than a cash cow for the incumbent tenant.
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Right to buy should never have been introduced in the first place, social housing should have been retained. I agree with Jeremy 1960 it should be strictly controlled. A lot of council tenants sub let whilst people who need the homes cannot get one. Right to buy in the 80’s looked a great deal, and to many it was, but quite a large number mortgaged relatively cheaply and got miras tax relief, then interest rates rocketed up, miras was abolished and a lot of right to buy owners ended up in negative equity, could not afford the mortgage so had to sell, they then couldn’t get back into social housing so we’re much worse off than they started.
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