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Grenfell survivors offered discounts on homes under new ownership deals
Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire will be offered special homeownership deals, including significant discounts on the purchase of new properties by the government and Kensington and Chelsea Council, it has been confirmed.
In a letter sent today to former residents of the tower and the adjoining Grenfell Walk, housing secretary James Brokenshire and Kim Taylor-Smith, deputy leader at the council, outlined the two offers.
The Enhanced Portable Discount, developed by Kensington and Chelsea Council, will allow residents to use a discount to buy a home on the open market anywhere in the country apart from the one they currently live in.
It will involve discounts of up to £160,000, £50,000 more than the Right to Buy.
Residents will also be offered the Grenfell Assisted Home Ownership Scheme, developed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
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This will allow people to purchase a share of their new, more expensive home equivalent to the value of their previous home at Grenfell with a Right to Buy-level discount.
A housing association will own the remaining share but, unlike standard shared ownership, residents will not pay rent on this part of the equity with government providing grant to the association to buy the rest of the home.
Services charges will be kept at the level residents would have paid at Grenfell.
“These schemes have been specifically designed for Grenfell residents to ensure that those who would like to own their own home have a route onto the housing ladder at a similar cost to before the tragedy,” the letter said.
Many residents have now moved to homes worth more than those at Grenfell, making the Right to Buy less affordable. The Right to Buy, or an equivalent for those now in a housing association home, will still apply.
The three offers cannot be used in combination and are only available to residents who held a council tenancy at the time of the fire and have been social housing tenants for at least three years.
Split households, leaseholders, private rented sector tenants, lodgers and rough sleepers who survived the fire are not eligible.
Further details on the new schemes will be available later this year, the letter said.
Officials discussed the new products with residents on 12 February and they have now been approved by the council and the government.
Grenfell Tower was destroyed in a devastating fire in June 2017, which claimed 72 lives.
Twelve of the 201 households from the tower and Grenfell Walk are still yet to be rehoused, including three in emergency accommodation.
