"1.3m housing association tenants to be given right-to-buy"

[dutchman]

David Cameron will say the dream of the property-owning democracy is alive and Conservatives ‘are the party of working people’



An unabashed extension of the Thatcherite right to buy for 1.3m families in housing association properties will be at the centre of an aspirational Tory manifesto due to be launched on Tuesday in the West Country.

The pledge is expected to see tens of thousands of housing association tenants a year take up a discount on buying a housing association property that will be capped at just over £102,700 in London and £77,000 for the rest of England.

Cameron will make his pitch to the nation saying the dream of the property owning democracy is alive, and that the Conservatives “are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life”.

It will also be accompanied by a requirement that councils sell their most valuable 210,000 properties from their remaining housing stock. Critics will claim councils are being forced to sell their best property, and reducing council property in England into residual housing for the poor as a result.

The offer on the right to buy, coupled with the proposal to cut inheritance tax trailed over the weekend, will also help counter the claim that Cameron, by focusing so much on Labour, has not set out a positive vision of a second term.

The proposed discount will be worth 35% for a house after a housing association tenant has been in the house for three years with the value of the discount rising 1% for every extra year the tenant has rented in the public sector. In the case of a flat, the discount will be worth 50% after the first three years, rising by 2% each year afterwards.

Councils will also be required to sell about 5% of their remaining council stock. These most-valuable properties will only be sold once they became vacant, and once sold, councils will be required to build a more affordable, cheaper property on a one-for-one basis.

The government expects around 15,000 of these high value council properties will become vacant annually, and proceeds from these sales will release £4.5bn a year – cash that will not only build new affordable property, but also fund the proposed discounts to tenants, creating a £1bn brownfield regeneration fund that will produce 400,000 new houses over five years.

Housing associations have opposed previous versions of these proposals and the requirement that councils sell their most-expensive properties will also be resisted by some local authorities angry that mixed-tenancy council housing is being turned into estates for the poor.

A total of 800,000 housing association tenants that have transferred from council property already have a limited right to a discount, but the new offer will extend the right to buy to 500,000 tenants that have no right to buy at all.

[rebbonk]

Ludicrous.

This is a repeat of Thatcher's trick and will (predictably) end the same way. People will buy, get into trouble with repayments (or get greedy for a quick profit) and sell. The result will be that a few years down the way the majority of these houses will be in the hands of the private rental sector.

Cameron is not helping those in rented housing, he is stealing it from under their very feet.

[dutchman]

In the case of a flat, the discount will be worth 50% after the first three years, rising by 2% each year afterwards.

I'm curious to know how this will work? Will it for example mean that someone who has lived in a flat for 25 years will get it for nothing?

[rebbonk]

I guess there will be a cap Dutchman, likely around 60/70% of what is deemed market value. But 50% off after 3 years is one heck of a bribe! The rent paid during that time won't even cover the discount, so in effect you've been paid to live there. Sounds too good to be true...

[rebbonk]

Allegedly, according to the Daily Mail (I've not verified it as I refuse to use that site after they banned me from their discussion boards) it will be capped at 70%

[rebbonk]

But there is unrest....

[dutchman]

Allegedly, according to the Daily Mail (I've not verified it as I refuse to use that site after they banned me from their discussion boards) it will be capped at 70%

Thanks Rebbonk

That's the same as I qualify for now. The trouble is that's "70%" of the value they claim it is, not necessarily what it's worth on the open market. Several flats around here were sold by the council for £60,000 (with a council mortgage) but only fetched £30,000 when resold as they could could not be remortgaged ("non-standard construction").

Also, you never really "own" a flat, it's only leasehold and there's still ground rent to pay. People of my age no longer qualify for help with ground rent payments although they used to before 2010.