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Extending Right to Buy ‘hare-brained idea’, says Shelter boss
The government’s plan to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants is a “hare-brained idea” that had been tried and failed before, the chief executive of Shelter has said.
Amid reports that the government is planning to extend the controversial housing policy, Polly Neate said the proposal is the “opposite of what the country needs”.
Over the weekend, The Telegraph reported that prime minister Boris Johnson plans to revive the Right to Buy scheme, which allows social housing tenants to buy their homes at a discount rate.
The scheme was first introduced by Margaret Thatcher for council tenants in the 1980s. By 1997, more than 1,700,000 homes in the UK had been sold under the Right the Buy.
According to Shelter, only 5% of the social housing sold under the Right to Buy has been replaced.
Ms Neate said there “could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes” as the current cost of living crisis means “more people are on the brink of homelessness than homeownership”.
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“Nearly 34,000 households in England became homeless between October and December last year – more than 8,000 of them were families with children,” she added.
The Shelter chief executive said the “half-baked” plans have been “tried before and they’ve failed”.
Ms Neate said: “Over one million households are stuck on social housing waiting lists in England, and with every bill skyrocketing, the government should be building more social homes so we have more not less.”
It is not the first time the Conservative government announced plans to extend the Right to Buy scheme.
Former prime minister David Cameron first announced plans to extend Right to Buy in 2015.
But take-up in a pilot involving five housing associations in 2016 was lower than anticipated: only 1.6% of eligible households applied to buy their social home, compared with the 20% MPs had expected.
Following this, then-chancellor Philip Hammond revealed plans for a regional Right to Buy pilot in the Midlands, which was launched in 2018. A total of 1,892 homes were sold under the pilot, which is less than the 3,000 homes the government estimated would be sold.
A report on the Midlands pilot noted tenants’ frustration with the process and the “many challenges faced by housing associations in building replacement homes, including land availability and funding”.
Just two months ago, analysis from the UK Housing Review branded the Right to Buy a “strategic failure” that will exacerbate inequalities unless it is reconsidered.
The Chartered Institute of Housing’s research found the scheme had led to a decline in the social rent sector and a growth of the private rented sector in the UK.
In response to the reports that the Right to Buy will be extended, a Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: “We want everyone to be given the chance to own a home of their own, and we keep all options to increase homeownership under review.
“Recent statistics show that the annual number of first-time buyers is at a 20-year high, helped by our Help to Buy scheme for first-time buyers and Mortgage Guarantee Scheme to expand the availability of low-deposit mortgages.”
