Boris Johnson pondering right to buy for housing association tenants
The right to buy could be the new great proposal of Johnson
Boris Johnson is considering reviving Margaret Thatcher’s right to buy scheme by giving people the chance to purchase the properties they rent from housing associations at a discounted price.
The idea, designed to help “generation rent” and prove the government is still committed to its Conservative principles amid unrest from some backbenchers, is being worked up by officials in the No 10 policy unit, with reports that up to 2.5 million households could become eligible to buy their homes at a discount of up to 70%.
But housing experts warned the policy amounted to the sell-off of affordable homes during the cost-of-living crisis and called instead for an increase in housebuilding. Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, criticised the “hare-brained idea” as “the opposite of what the country needs”.
Ministers are also considering whether to allow banks to take into account taxpayer money received by those who claim housing benefit when they are seeking a mortgage.
To help boost housing stocks, the government is contemplating axing the rule that developers must build a set number of affordable homes in favour of making them pay into an infrastructure fund that councils can then use to fund their own projects.
Housing reforms have fallen by the wayside after the government backed down in the face of a huge backlash from Tory MPs over changes to planning rules.
The Daily Telegraph cited a source saying Johnson was “very excited” about rejuvenating Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy, with the roughly 2.5 million households living in housing association property becoming eligible to buy their homes.
Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow communities secretary, called the plan “desperate” and accused the “tired government” of repackaging a plan from 2015.
She added: “Millions of families in the private rented sector with low savings and facing sky high-costs and rising bills, need far more ambitious plans to help them buy their own home.”
Right to buy became one of the legacy decisions of Thatcher’s era and allowed council tenants to purchase their properties at a discounted rate. Critics, however, rounded on the policy, which they said would only worsen the country’s shortage of affordable housing.
Shelter said that in the last three months of 2021, nearly 34,000 households in England became homeless, more than 8,000 of them families with children.
Neate said: “There could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes. The living cost crisis means more people are on the brink of homelessness than homeownership …
“Right to buy has already torn a massive hole in our social housing stock as less than 5% of the homes sold off have ever been replaced. These half-baked plans have been tried before and they’ve failed.”
More than 1 million households are stuck on social housing waiting lists in England according to the charity, and at a time when bills were skyrocketing, Neate said the government “should be building more social homes, so we have more not less”.
The housing expert Henry Pryor suggested the Conservatives were trying to bribe voters with a taxpayer-subsidised sale of housing association stock. About half the homes previously bought under right to buy are let out for higher rents in the private sector, with thousands of rents being subsidised by the taxpayer, he said.
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