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Cardiff Council suspends the Right to Buy
Cardiff Council has become the latest in Wales to suspend the Right to Buy.
The Welsh Government has approved the authority’s application from February to put a halt to discounted sales of its housing stock to tenants.
A bill to abolish the Right to Buy across Wales is currently being considered by the Welsh Assembly.
Councils in Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Flintshire and Denbighshire have already been allowed to suspend sales.
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“Cardiff is one of the UK’s fastest growing cities and with over 8,000 people currently on the waiting list for social housing, we have to do everything we can to ensure we are providing good quality housing for those most in need, both now and into the future,” said Lynda Thorne, cabinet member for housing and communities at Cardiff Council.
She said that Cardiff’s council housing stock has been cut from 23,000 to 13,400 since 1985, largely because of the Right to Buy.
Carl Sargeant, communities and children secretary for the Welsh Government, said the suspension would help the council “deal with the pressure their social housing is facing and to ensure that homes are available to those who need them”.
He added: “The Right to Buy is depleting our social housing stock. This damaging policy is further increasing the pressure on our social housing supply and is forcing many vulnerable people to wait longer for a home.
“Legislating to end the Right to Buy is the only sure way to prevent this and give social landlords the confidence to invest in building more of the affordable homes Wales needs.”
