Scottish Government looks to scrap right-to-buy

[Gerrard Winstanley]

 Scottish Government looks to scrap right-to-buy
new council and housing association homes would be saved for low-cost rent

By Tim Pauling
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1191440?UserKey=
Published: 28/04/2009

Ministers want to scrap the right to buy newly-built council and housing association properties.

The Scottish Government wants to ensure spending on social housing benefits those in need, and is not used to subsidise new homeowners.

It is estimated that between 2012 and 2022 the move will retain between 10,000 and 18,000 homes at low-cost rent that would otherwise be lost through right-to-buy sales.

The original right-to-buy was introduced by the Tories in 1980. Since then nearly 500,000 public-sector homes have been sold, and just 42,000 council homes built.

The government is seeking views on its proposal to scrap the right to buy on newly-built social housing.

It is also consulting on plans to make it easier for the right to buy to be suspended in areas where there is a shortage of affordable homes.

Housing Minister Alex Neil said: “Ending the right to buy for new-build houses will safeguard social housing for future generations of families across Scotland.

“Meanwhile, modernised regulation will ensure that new and existing social housing delivers improving value for tenants and taxpayers.

“These changes, alongside our efforts to reverse the decades of decline in council house building, backed by £50million in funding, will support councils to begin building homes again.”

The moves were welcomed by housing organisations and charities. Shelter Scotland director Graeme Brown said: “Radical reform of right-to-buy is the right thing to do. There’s no point in running a bath with the plug out the other end and that’s what we continue to do when we build good-quality affordable rented homes and then sell them on at a discounted price.”

Scottish Federation of Housing Associations chief executive Jacqui Watt said: “This will help protect and retain vital affordable housing stock at a time when housing is in crisis, with waiting lists spiralling out of control. It will also help retain badly-needed stock ahead of the introduction of ambitious homelessness targets in 2012.”

Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Jamie Stone said: “More affordable housing is desperately needed, particularly in the rented sector. Everybody should be able to afford to keep a roof over their heads. There is now an overwhelming case to abolish right-to-buy for new-build council and social landlord houses.”

Labour condemned the government announcement as a “cynical attempt” to divert attention from its failure to help housing associations build more affordable homes.

Housing spokeswoman Mary Mulligan said: “The real crisis in Scottish housing is that housing associations are finding it harder to build any houses at all.

“Despite the SNP's spin, the rate of affordable house building has actually declined since the Nationalists took office.

“The number of new homes being built by housing associations fell by over 800 in the first three quarters of last year. This is a direct consequence of the SNP's decision to cut the grant to housing associations for new homes.”

The Tories said right-to-buy had helped thousands of people get on to the housing ladder. Housing spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said it was one of the “great successes” of the last Tory government and helped more than 300,000 Scots fulfil their ambitions.
Liberating

“Quite simply, it was the most significant, socially liberating policy introduced by any government,” she said. “The scrapping of the right to buy for all new-build affordable homes will mean that future generations will be given fewer chances to get a foot on to the housing ladder.”

Under the Scottish Government proposals, those becoming new tenants after the legislation comes into force would not be entitled to the right to buy, but there would be no changes to the right to buy for existing tenants, said the government.

Existing tenants who stay in their homes would continue to have their existing right to buy, whether on traditional or “modernised” post-2002 version terms.