You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
9,000 housing association tenants enter ballot for Midlands Right to Buy pilot
More than 9,000 housing association tenants entered the ballot to purchase their home through the Midlands Voluntary Right to Buy pilot, Inside Housing can exclusively reveal.
Around 6,000 entrants were successful and have been allocated unique reference numbers, allowing them to attempt to buy a home at a discount.
However, the government has also confirmed that it expects the £200m set aside for the pilot to fund approximately 3,000 sales – meaning half the tenants who made it through the ballot are set to miss out.
Inside Housing reported in summer that ministers were expecting the policy’s budget to pay for discounts on 3,000 homes.
READ MORE
Housing minister Kit Malthouse said: “We are committed to helping people get a foot on the property ladder and have a place they can call their own.
“Our £200m investment into the Midlands Voluntary Right to Buy pilot is the first step in helping housing association tenants realise their dream of homeownership.
“Six thousand tenants of the 9,000 households that registered can now apply to their housing association.
“We believe a ballot to be the fairest way of allocating the limited number of places available and will conduct a full evaluation of the pilot after it finishes.”
After long delays, the regional pilot of the Right to Buy for housing associations was launched in August.
Tenants wishing to purchase their home at a discount equivalent to that available to council tenants through the statutory Right to Buy were required to apply for a ballot which ran for one month.
Successful entrants who still wish to proceed with their purchase – which can include ‘porting’ the Right to Buy discount to another housing association property if their own home is exempt – have until spring 2020 to complete.
The 6,000 tenants have a limited time to start the process of purchasing their house. They will need to successfully apply for a mortgage, and accept an offer of ‘porting’ if their home is exempt which may mean some drop-outs.
However, it is not clear what would happen if the costs of the discounts for those who successfully applied exceeded the £200m budget. It is estimated that will be enough to pay for 3,000 sales.
Tenants of 45 different housing associations from across the Midlands region entered the ballot, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said.
It is understood that take-up varied considerably across the region, with less interest in areas with flatter house prices.
The future of the Voluntary Right to Buy after the Midlands trial is now in doubt, since the government scrapped a plan to force councils to sell off their most expensive homes, which was intended to fund the full policy.
It is now not clear how the discounts would be paid for were the Voluntary Right to Buy rolled out nationwide.
