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CIH calls for suspension of Right to Buy in major social housing report
The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has called on the government to suspend the Right to Buy to increase the supply of affordable housing.
In a report published at the start of Housing 2018 -the CIH’s annual conference and exhibition in Manchester today, the body has said that social housing should not be seen as a “safety net”, but should compete with private housing and cater to a wider range of people.
It highlights six specific areas of action for the sector:
- Adopting a common definition of the role of social housing
- Ensuring tenants have a voice
- Increasing the supply of genuinely affordable housing
- Ensuring everyone can afford a home
- Guaranteeing existing homes are of good quality and well managed
- Challenging stigmas associated with social housing
Alongside suspending the Right to Buy, the CIH said the government should also remove the barriers that stop councils replacing homes sold under the policy.
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Other recommendations in the wide-ranging report include linking social rents to local incomes, increasing the proportion of government housing funding going into the social and affordable sector, and reviewing regulation around tenant involvement and empowerment.
It also said that social landlords should set rents “that are genuinely affordable to people on lower incomes”.
Accompanying the report, the CIH commissioned an Ipsos MORI poll which found that more than 60% of people in England supported more social housing construction in their areas, with 78% of respondents saying it should be available to those who cannot afford private rents.
Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the CIH, said: “The message we got from our research was loud and clear – social housing has a unique and positive role to play and it is highly valued.
“It’s also clear there is a huge disparity between the support for social housing demonstrated in this report and the current level of investment. And there is still a stigma attached to social housing as a product and the people who call it home.
“We can only truly start to tackle the chronic shortage of affordable housing in this country by putting social housing at the centre of government plans to solve the housing crisis.”
The report was sponsored by Home Group, Incommunities, Optivo, PA Housing, Peabody, Riverside, South Liverpool Homes, and Sovereign.
In developing the report, the CIH relied on evidence from 199 workshops held across the country, with 766 people completing online surveys. It estimated 3,000 people contributed views to the report, with 36% of them social housing tenants.
The project was launched in November, and was intended to feed into the government’s forthcoming Social Housing Green Paper – announced in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire.
The advisory group for the project will be co-chaired by Paul Tennant, former chief executive of Orbit, and Ken Gibb, professor in housing economics at the University of Glasgow.
The report said: “It’s time to reclaim the role of social housing as a pillar of the society we want to be, along with free health care and education – and it must be at the centre of government plans to solve the housing crisis.
“And, having ‘reclaimed’ the role of social housing, we need to push on – creating an ambitious vision of what a plentiful supply of social housing can do help people thrive in communities that prosper.”
