Tories accused of fuelling housing crisis with £3.5billion 'firesale' of council homes
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Loading... - Jan Willis
- 02 Feb 2021
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The Tories have spent £3.5billion subsidising the sale of council houses while failing to build replacement homes.
A report today accuses the Government of fuelling the housing crisis with its “fire sale” of council properties.
The analysis by the Local Government Association says the Government has but the rocket boosters under the right to buy but failed to deliver its promise to build like-for-like replacements.
It says the discount for sellers has leapt by 132% under this government to more than £60,000 - allowing them to sell their homes at almost half price.
In 2011/12 the average discount for a council tenant purchasing under right to buy was £26,690 – around 25 % of the verage property value.
The average discount has now reached £61,810 – 43% of the property value.
Local government leaders say this has seen a fourfold increase in right to buy sales in the last five years.
But councils have been unable to build enough new homes to replace them as they only get a third of the receipts from the sales.
Since 2012/13 councils have sold 55,171 homes under right to buy but only started building 11,357 homes - a loss of around 44,000 social rented homes in five years.
The figures make a mockery of the Tories’ promise when they came to power in 2010 to replace any council house sold with a new build.
The LGA’s Judith Blake said: “Councils support people’s aspiration to own their own home and Right to Buy is one way of doing this.
“However, selling council homes at a discount of nearly half price has led to a social housing fire sale that threatens the future of the scheme. The rate of homes sold under RTB combined with the restrictions on councils is making replacing homes sold virtually impossible.
“This loss of social rented housing risks pushing more families into the private rented sector, driving up housing benefit spending and rents and exacerbating our homelessness crisis. This is particularly concerning as many of the homes sold through the scheme ended up being rented out privately at more expensive rates.
“For RTB to work, councils must be able to replace every home sold. Councils must be allowed to set RTB discounts locally, retain RTB sale receipts in full to replace sold homes, and be given the freedom to borrow to build new affordable homes and play a lead role in tackling the country’s housing shortage.”
Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey said: “In the midst of a housing crisis, the Conservatives’ wasteful Right to Buy is indefensible.
“Since 2010, communities have lost 170,000 council homes while the number of younger home-owners has fallen by a million. The Conservatives’ approach to housing is failing on all fronts.
“Labour will suspend the Right to Buy and start the biggest council house building programme in thirty years. We will back first-time buyers on ordinary incomes by building 100,000 discounted FirstBuy homes, targeting help to buy and giving local people ‘first dibs’ on new homes built in their area."
A Ministry for Housing spokesman said: “Right to Buy is giving people who aspire to own their home the opportunity to do so, and more than 80,000 households have used the scheme since it was reinvigorated in 2012.
“Every additional home sold off must be replaced by an extra one, nationally. Councils should deliver these properties within three years.”
