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Government mulls Right to Buy for housing association residents
The government has hinted that it is considering introducing the Right to Buy for housing association residents ahead of this week’s local elections, according to reports.
Several national newspapers reported over the weekend that ministers are considering whether to extend the policy, which was introduced under Margaret Thatcher, to the roughly 2.5 million people living in housing association properties.
It is also considering whether to allow banks to take housing benefit income into account when households are seeking a mortgage, the reports said.
This is not the first time the government has considered extending the Right to Buy – which currently applies only to council housing tenants – to housing associations.
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David Cameron announced ahead of the 2015 general election that he would extend the Right to Buy to housing associations in the first 100 days of his term, however he never fulfilled this pledge.
In 2018, Theresa May’s government launched a pilot in the West Midlands to test the policy.
A total of 1,892 homes were sold under the pilot, which is less than the 3,000 homes the government estimated would be sold.
In its 2019 general election manifesto, the Conservative Party vowed to “evaluate new pilot areas in order to spread the dream of homeownership to even more people”.
Lisa Nandy, Labour’s shadow communities secretary, labelled the plan “desperate stuff from a tired government”.
“Millions of families in the private rented sector with low savings, and facing sky-high costs and rising bills, need far more ambitious plans to help them buy their own home,” she added.
It comes as many voters in England, Scotland and Wales prepare to head to the polls this Thursday to vote in the local elections.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We want everyone to be given the chance to own a home of their own, and we keep all options to increase homeownership under review.
“Recent statistics show that the annual number of first-time buyers is at a 20-year high, helped by our Help to Buy scheme for first time buyers and Mortgage Guarantee Scheme to expand the availability of low-deposit mortgages.”
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