Charity Commission Raises Concerns Over RTB Deal

The Charity Commission has raised concerns over the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) voluntary offer to extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants.  In a statement responding to a letter from shadow housing minister John Healey, the commission said it raised “a number of concerns” about the Right to Buy extension with the CLG during meetings earlier this summer. In a statement, the commission said “there are aspects” of the new Right to Buy voluntary offer “which reduce some of the charity law concerns” it had previously raised with the CLG. It said: “However, they [the new plans] also raise, as did the original proposals, issues about their impact on how trustees administer charitable housing associations in the best interests of their beneficiaries for the public benefit. The commission will be speaking to NHF and CLG to explore these further and contribute to the detail of any proposals taken forward in the coming weeks.” Read more on Inside Housing.