Right to Buy delay fears after second pilot announcement

The ?large-scale? regional Right to Buy pilots, announced in Wednesday?s Autumn Statement and expanding on five pilots launched last November, will allow just 3,000 tenants to purchase their homes from housing associations. The government has set aside a pot of ?250m to fund these pilots between now and 2021.

Extending the Right to Buy to 1.3 million housing association tenants, funded by selling off high-value council housing, was the flagship policy announcement of the Conservative manifesto.

As recently as May, the industry had been briefed to expect a full roll-out of the policy by autumn, but the further pilots suggests it may now be on hold.

Earlier this month, housing minister Gavin Barwell hinted at a delay, while a civil servant said in October that Brexit had delayed the policy.

In a letter to National Housing Federation (NHF) members on Wednesday, NHF chief executive David Orr wrote: ?I know that you and your tenants are awaiting further details, including a start date, for the national scheme and that the uncertainty makes business planning more challenging, so we will also be seeking clarity on this as soon as possible.?

Shadow housing minister John Healey said: ?Six months on from the passing of the Housing and Planning Act? today?s Autumn Statement suggests that ministers are delaying the extension of the Right to Buy even further.?

Paul Phillips, group finance director of Notting Hill Housing, said: ?I can see the problem with finding the money, so maybe this is a way of delivering something more modest. Three-thousand homes is nothing compared with the amount of homes housing associations own.?

A Treasury spokesperson said it is not a delay of the national roll-out and will the allow the government to test key features of the main scheme.