Savills Questions £4.5bn Right To Buy Calculation

The Conservative Party’s suggestion that £4.5bn could be raised by selling high value council homes to part fund its planned extension of Right to Buy to housing associations is highly questionable, according to research by Savills. Their analysis suggests the total value of housing in the UK is £5.75 trillion - with social housing accounting for £374bn based on its existing use value, or £894bn at market value. The Savills analysis calculates that the average value of a social home in England is just under £208,000 - but the Conservative Party’s plans to sell 15,000 vacant council homes a year raising £4.5bn assumes an average sale value of £300,000. Read more on the Savills website.

Review into How More Social Homes Can Be Built

An independent and wide-ranging review into how more social homes can be built has been launched by Danny Alexander and Eric Pickles. The review will be led by Natalie Elphicke, chair of Million Homes, Million Lives, and Keith House, Leader of Eastleigh Borough Council. This review will assess if councils are making sufficient use of their existing powers and flexibilities to deliver new social housing. For instance, councils could use their property portfolio more effectively to finance housebuilding by selling expensive vacant properties and using the receipts to build new affordable homes. The review will also consider how councils can work more closely with housing associations, housebuilders and businesses to build more new homes. Read more on the Govuk website.

Hopkins Calls On Councils to Free Up Land for Affordable Homes

Kris Hopkins has called on councils to provide more land for new housing to build 165,000 affordable homes over the next three years. The housing minister spoke as the government called on housing associations, local authorities and construction companies to bid for funding from a £23 billion affordable housing programme that will run between 2015 and 2018. The 165,000-affordable homes scheme, which includes private funding, will receive £3.3 billion from the CLG. Mr Hopkins stressed it was ‘vital’ that councils provided more land for new housing under the programme. Bidders for the scheme will also face pressure to sell off their most expensive council homes in order to access money for new house building. They will be asked to demonstrate by the CLG that they are using their property portfolio ‘in the most effective way possible’. Read more on Inside Housing.

Sell Expensive Council Houses, Ministers Urge

Local authorities will be pressured to sell off expensive council houses under a new Government scheme. Ministers have indicated that they want Britain’s most valuable council houses to be sold off so the funds can be used to build multiple affordable homes. Councils attempting to secure grants from a new multi-billion pound housing fund will first have to prove that they are managing their property portfolio “in the most effective way possible”. The move comes after research showed that more than a fifth of council house tenants in England lived in homes worth more than the average privately-owned home in their areas. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.