RIGHT TO BUY IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IS NEEDED

In my column in last week's Cornish Guardian, I addressed the rumoured expansion of the Right to Buy scheme, which would lead to the loss of much-needed affordable housing. It was as follows:

In 1980, Margaret Thatcher’s Government introduced Right to Buy through its first Housing Act, and the legislation allowed council tenants to purchase their homes at a significant discount from their open-market value.

As a consequence, some two million rental properties were sold. I agree with the view of Polly Neate, the Chief Executive of the homelessness charity Shelter, that this tore “a massive hole” in the stock of much-needed affordable housing.

I would add that the loss of so many social rent properties over the last forty years – which were largely not replaced – has been a significant contributory factor to the out-of-control, dysfunctional and unbalanced housing market that exists today.

I was therefore extremely alarmed to see newspaper reports that state the Prime Minister is looking into re-energising the concept of Right to Buy by extending it to tenants of Housing Associations.

I could hardly believe what I was reading. A “government source” was quoted as saying that: “The Prime Minister has got very excited about this. In many ways it is a replica of the great Maggie idea of 'buy your own council flat.' It is 'buy your own housing association flat’.”

It is a bonkers plan. There is so much that needs to be done to combat the housing crisis, but selling off social rent properties is not any part of any answer.

Again, I agree with the comments of Polly Neate. Extending Right to Buy is indeed “half-baked” and a “hare-brained idea.” It is the “opposite of what the country needs” and “there could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes.”

There is obviously a political dimension to what the Prime Minister is considering, as the Conservatives believe Right to Buy could be a popular policy. But a prominent thinktank has rightly pointed out the inequity at the core of the proposal, noting that it “offers huge financial benefits to those who qualify for social housing” – perhaps many tens of thousands of pounds – “while providing nothing for those … who pay much higher rents in less secure private tenancies.”

It is telling that progressive governments in the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales abolished Right to Buy in 2017 and 2019 respectively. I understood that the Northern Ireland version of the scheme will end in August.

Right to Buy should also be ruled out in Cornwall and England. Politicians should instead be prioritising the provision of proper local-needs housing, legislating to protect those in private rented accommodation and to control rents, while rolling back the spread of second homes and airbnbs.