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Jamie Ratcliff is executive director of people and partnerships at Network Homes
Our support for an extension of the Right to Buy would not be a foregone conclusion
Housing associations, including Network Homes, agreed to a voluntary extension of the Right to Buy in 2015. But times have changed and our support for a new extension would not be a foregone conclusion, writes Jamie Ratcliff
The much-trailed announcement by prime minister Boris Johnson of his desire to extend the Right to Buy to housing associations has generated significant discussion across the sector.
While we await significant missing details on how this is proposed to be achieved and what is new, I think there is a need to engage closely with key local stakeholders to understand their perspectives.
There will be some further discussion with housing associations coming soon and housing secretary Michael Gove has stated that we will be “seduced” into participating.
Even if the proposals are financially advantageous to our tenants and balance sheets, we also need to understand local differences and the impact on housing need.
When I worked with him at City Hall, Mr Johnson used to frequently tell the story of a granddaughter of a tenant in west London who bought their council home through the Right to Buy and professed that they were a lifelong Conservative voter as a result.
From this, I’m sure his desire to implement the policy is authentic.
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Mr Johnson was much less keen on the proposal to force the sale of higher-value council homes, which thankfully doesn’t seem to be part of the latest announcement. If it was somehow resuscitated, then I’m sure it would be a ‘redline’ for many organisations.
In 2015 at the Greater London Authority, we calculated that the value of receipts from homes sold would be enough to build twice as many new homes.
Since then build costs have risen much faster than values, but if at Network Homes we were fully compensated for any discount then the average values, combined with increased income from rents, would still allow us to build more than one new social rented home.
I know that this isn’t the case in all parts of the country.
The prospect of being given a discount of up to £112,800 could clearly be life-changing for Network tenants that are able to afford to buy their home, but as an organisation we must also consider the impact on future residents in housing need.
Proponents of the Right to Buy rubbish the idea that homes sold are ‘lost’, but unless the replacement homes are complete by the time the purchasing tenant would have moved out, then there would be a negative impact on housing need.
As an organisation, Network Homes has a strong commitment to increasing the number of homes for people in housing need – one of our strategic objectives – and is also supporting many hundreds of families into homeownership, predominantly through the delivery of new shared ownership homes.
In September 2015, the then board of Network Housing Group supported the National Housing Federation’s proposal to implement a voluntary Right to Buy.
“The prospect of being given a discount of up to £112,800 could clearly be life-changing for Network tenants that are able to afford to buy their home, but as an organisation we must also consider the impact on future residents in housing need”
A significant amount of time has passed since then and if we were to agree to new arrangements, it would definitely require a new board decision, which would be far from a foregone conclusion.
Local councils are important partners and have statutory duties in relation to homelessness and housing need, we therefore think it is important that their views are fed into any decision-making – alongside insight from our residents.
The handling of the previous proposals damaged relationships between councils and housing associations in many areas, and I am very keen to avoid this.
I’ve already contacted the seven councils in the areas where Network owns the most homes – covering over 80% of our stockholding – to seek their views.
I’m ready and willing to listen and engage with other local stakeholders, too. I am sure many other housing associations committed to place and fighting housing need will be having similar conversations.
Jamie Ratcliff, executive director of people and partnerships, Network Homes
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