Councils reconsider housing association links

David Cameron on Wednesday confirmed the government has accepted an offer from the National Housing Federation to ‘voluntarily’ implement RTB for all association tenants.

This is in return for compensation for the discount, more flexibility to build homes for other tenures such as shared ownership and “portable discounts” for certain properties.

John Bibby, chief executive of the Association of Retained Council Housing, said if associations replace homes sold under the policy with low-cost homeownership homes, it could change the relationship with local authorities.

“We will have to wait and see what that means for traditional type of agreements where councils gift land or provide discounted land to associations in return for nomination rights,” he said. He warned if associations become more commercial, councils could treat associations “like any other developer”.

Mr Bibby also called on the Conservatives to honour a pre-election pledge to consult on the details of its plan to fund the policy by forcing councils to sell off expensive homes as they become vacant.   

The comments follow criticism from some councils of the decision by housing associations to vote for the deal.

Kevin Price, executive councillor housing at Cambridge City Council, said the Labour-led council will continue to have a good relationship with smaller organisations that voted against. However, he said: “I fail to see the logic with the issue around larger associations that voted for it.”  

Councillors at Ealing and Islington Councils in London this week both said their authorities could favour housing associations which voted ‘no’ with land or support if they are exempted from the Right to Buy. Gary Porter, chair of the Conservative-led Local Government Association criticised the deal on Sunday, saying smaller landlords had been “left out in the cold”.