Morning Briefing: sector hits out at Raab’s promise to extend Right to Buy
Prospective prime minister Dominic Raab promises to extend the controversial Right to Buy policy, Kier looks to offload housebuilding arm, and all your other major housing stories this morning
In the news
Dominic Raab has promised to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants if he is elected the new leader of the Conservatives, according to The Sun.
Mr Raab said that one of his first acts if he were to become the new prime minister would be to fulfil a pledge made in 2015 to give a million more tenants the chance to buy their home.
But the idea received scathing responses on Twitter from those working in the social housing sector.
Shocking. RTB favours the few and limits affordable options for the many.
— Lee Sugden (@leesug)Shocking. RTB favours the few and limits affordable options for the many.
— Lee Sugden (@leesug) June 15, 2019
Marvellous, that’ll sort out the housing crisis. Not. 🤦🏼♀️
— Soph (@sophieandpiea>Marvellous, that’ll sort out the housing crisis. Not. \uD83E\uDD26\uD83C\uDFFC♀️
— Soph (@sophieandpie) June 15, 2019
@DominicRaab states that too many people are struggling to get in the housing ladder bit neglects that the selling off of social housing will perpetuate this and the gap between the haves and have nots. Clearly he doe’n’t consider social housing to be ’proper housing’. #clueless
— Sean Tofts (@SeanToftsa>@DominicRaab states that too many people are struggling to get in the housing ladder bit neglects that the selling off of social housing will perpetuate this and the gap between the haves and have nots. Clearly he doesn't consider social housing to be 'proper housing'. #clueless
— Sean Tofts (@SeanTofts) June 16, 2019
It is a testing time for construction and services company Kier Group, which revealed that it is looking to sell its housebuilding division in an attempt to cut debt and simplify its structure, The Guardian reports. Inside Housing has also reported this story this morning.
There is evidence that rents are rising to offset the losses brought about by the recent ban on tenant fees, according to The Guardian. Just two weeks after the ban came into force, a north London lettings agent has started telling its landlords to raise all future rents by £20 a month to offset the new costs they face. And it is unlikely to be alone in proposing such a measure, the newspaper said.
The BBC reports on research carried out by thinktank the Resolution Foundation looking at how the ownership of second homes is hitting younger people. The number of British people who own a second home, buy-to-let or overseas property has doubled since 2001, the report found. While the number of millennials who own a home continues to fall, one in 10 people now own an additional property.
Just 37% of people born in the 1980s managed to buy a home at the age of 29, compared with half of those born in the 1960s.
Following on from the second anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire last Friday, Channel 4 has made a film about the 1,000 buildings that remain unsafe because of flammable cladding.
A Welsh council is considering installing energy-efficient prefabricated ‘pods’ in order to reduce the housing waiting list, the BBC reports.
Gwynedd Council’s housing department wants to install four pods on a former school site, and the authority hopes it could pave the way to a variety of homes in the town, with the pods also being movable.
There is a row brewing in Somerset over plans to build 105,000 homes across the region by 2036.
The plans could fall at the first hurdle because North Somerset Council’s contribution is “fundamentally flawed”, opponents have claimed, saying that the local authority failed to adequately consult on planned garden villages.
There will be a public examination on the plans next month. Bristol Live has the details.
Finally, the BBC has this report from the United States, where in some places, a lack of affordable housing means garage conversions are taking off.
What’s on
There are oral questions on housing, communities and local government in parliament at 2.30pm today
