Second London borough launches Right to Part Buy

If approved by the council?s executive committee on 28 November, tenants will be able to buy a minimum of 25% of their home from next year and pay rent on the remaining equity.

The discount is calculated as a percentage of the full ?103,900 Right to Buy discount, meaning the minimum discount would be ?25,975.

Tenants will be able to buy more equity, 10% at a time, up to the full cost of the property. The scheme mirrors the ?Right to Part-Buy? implemented by Labour-controlled Barking & Dagenham in June this year, under which tenants can buy between 25% and 70% of their property.

A report by Wandsworth?s finance director, Chris Buss, estimated each property sold under the scheme ?would reduce Housing Revenue Account resources by ?2,500 per annum based on a 50% initial sale?.

The council will retain capital receipts from the scheme within the Housing Revenue Account budget in order to build new homes.?

The council said the policy was a response to the diminishing number of full Right to Buy sales due to continued increases in house prices.

Last year the authority sold 44 homes under Right to Buy, down from 128 in 2013/14.

Paul Ellis, cabinet member for housing, said: ?Wandsworth has always been one of the pioneers of homeownership policies, and as one of the first councils to introduce a Right to Part Buy, we aim to help many more people onto the housing ladder.

?This will also fund the construction of new affordable housing, which the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has recently endorsed our achievements in.?

A Right to Part Buy policy was approved by Hammersmith & Fulham Council in 2014 and received the backing of former London mayor Boris Johnson and the Department for Communities and Local Government.

But the scheme, which was pioneered by the council?s former leader Stephen Greenhalgh, was not taken forward after Labour gained control of the authority.