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Hammersmith and Fulham (HandF) Council is to be the first
local authority in the country to simultaneously introduce fixed term social
housing tenancies and a maximum income cap for people wishing to access the housing
register. The council will be ripping up
the social housing rule book from April 2013 when it will introduce a number of
radical policies which seek to increase low-cost homeownership, tackle the
social and economic divide in the borough and give a far greater priority for
council housing to people who are making a community contribution. From April 2013 the council will prevent
households with incomes of more than £40,200 who need one or two-bedroom homes
from accessing the housing register. It will
give priority to people with local connections, members of the armed forces and
those who have made a community contribution. H&F, has one of the highest
proportions of social housing in London
as a proportion of total housing, with around 34 per cent social rented. Read more on the HandF website.
Labour councillors in Westminster
have quizzed the council about whether it makes “economic sense” to hand
tenants earning more than £60,000 a £75,000 discount to buy their council
home. The Government has reinvigorated
the Right-to-Buy scheme in England,
offering discounts of up to £75,000 – quadrupling the previous discount cap
across London
and tripling it in much of the rest of the country. However, there is no income cap on Right to
Buy. This means that tenants earning over £60,000 - which will soon be viewed
by Government as an income threshold for social housing - could potentially
benefit from a £75,000 discount to buy their home. According to the Labour group, Westminster council
expects to sell 175 flats over the next three years to households earning over
£60,000 a year. With the average value
of a council property in Westminster
at about £290,000 for a two-bedroom flat, this equates to a loss of £13m of
public funds, they argue. Read more on
24dash.
