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The week in housing: does the Right to Buy for housing associations have a future?
A weekly round-up of the most important headlines for housing professionals
Good afternoon everyone. It has been an experiment that has been rumbling on for more than two years.
Since Philip Hammond announced in 2018 that the government would launch a pilot in the Midlands that would see housing association tenants given the opportunity to buy their homes, the sector has waited with bated breath to see if it was the first step in a roll-out of the Right to Buy across the sector.
While a decision on that hasn’t been made just yet, we did get some insight into how successful that pilot was and how much a full roll-out could cost.
On Tuesday, Inside Housing analysis revealed that a full Voluntary Right to Buy roll-out to all housing association tenants could cost the taxpayer more than £14bn. Not pocket change by any stretch, particularly when you consider that the current Affordable Homes Programme is £11.5bn over the next five years.
The figures were based on a government-commissioned report into the Midlands pilot, and the cost was not the only concern raised. Issues with securing enough replacements for the homes sold and whether it was value for money were also raised. The pros and cons are all explained in our analysis.
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If the government’s response to the report is anything to go by, the Voluntary Right to Buy could be coming to an area near you very soon.
The week kicked off with the latest announcement aimed at fixing the building safety crisis. On Monday the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors announced that it had confirmed new guidance around the highly controversial external wall system (EWS) process. The new guidance set out which buildings no longer require checks, which in principle means that hundreds of buildings have now been taken out of EWS scope and thousands of people can now sell their homes. The government predicts that 500,000 leaseholders have been helped by the new guidance.
However, this comes with a huge caveat, and relies on buy-in from the banks. If early responses from the major banks are anything to go by, this new guidance hasn’t had much impact on their EWS policies so far.
Elsewhere, the bailiff eviction ban has been extended once more by the government, with landlords unable to take eviction action until at least 31 May. Until then, landlords will also have to provide eviction notice periods of six months.
The government’s primary housing delivery agency, Homes England, is also set to undergo a review by its new chair. Peter Freeman, who joined the organisation last year, is to oversee the review that will make sure Homes England is aligned with the government’s ‘build back better’ agenda.
One of the most popular stories with readers this week was the news that Lambeth Council is taking legal action against three housing associations over damp issues found across an estate in the borough. Lambeth confirmed to Inside Housing that it had begun proceedings against Notting Hill Genesis and Metropolitan Thames Valley following a lengthy campaign by residents at the St Martin’s Estate.
In Scotland, more than a year since the decision to put housing associations under Freedom of Information scrutiny, the Information Commissioner has said that landlords are coping well with their new duties.
And in Northern Ireland, the country’s minister that oversees housing has appeared to row back on a previous announcement that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive would be reclassified as a mutual similar to a housing association. Communities minister Deirdre Hargey said she asked officials exploring options to reform the Northern Ireland Housing Executive “to ensure that they exhaust all options that limit change as far as possible”.
Jack Simpson, news editor
Editor’s picks: five must-read stories
- How successful was the Midlands Right to Buy pilot?
- Government tells building control bodies to review assessments of Kingspan product
- Grenfell cladding firm considered possibility of fire killing ‘60 or 70’ people
- Housing Ombudsman begins publishing reports on all investigations
- Exempt accommodation provider being investigated by regulator halts issuing new leases