Start Preparing For Voluntary Right To Buy

Here are five tips on how to get your business ready for Voluntary Right to Buy.

1. Be clear where VRTB sits in your business

2. Map your processes - You’ll need to understand your processes and identify gaps. You can then put in place the systems, teams and people you’ll need to deliver VRTB.

3. Bring the business together - VRTB is very different than Preserved Right To Buy, it touches people across the business, including asset management, housing, customer contact teams and so on.

4. Getting the product to market - The customer experience is straightforward – like they’d expect from a bank or utility.

5. Managing expectations - Residents will be disappointed if they’re ineligible either because of their tenancy or their home is exempt.

Read more on the NHF website.

Right to Buy Extension Estimated To Cost £12 Billion

People will only be able to buy their home under this scheme if they are eligible and able to. Firstly, they need to have lived in their property for at least three years – 1.4 million households fit this criterion. Secondly, we should only count those who don’t currently have Preserved Right to Buy as they can already buy with a large discount – we estimate there to be around 550,000 households that are already eligible for this leaving 850,000 households eligible for the new proposal. But crucially, they need to be able to afford to buy the home after the discount. Even with the discount, not every household could afford a mortgage – the proportion of tenants varies by region from 15% to 35%. This means that across the country there are 221,000 households that are eligible for the new proposal and able to afford the mortgage. And if all of these households decide to take up the scheme, it would cost £11.6 billion. Indeed, the longer the scheme operates for, the more households become eligible. Read more on the NHF website.

HCA’s Latest Statistical Data Return

The Statistical Data Return (SDR) is an annual online survey completed by all English private registered providers of social housing (PRPs). It collects data on stock size, types, location and rents at 31 March each year, and data on sales and acquisitions made between 1 April and 31 March. The HCA released the latest SDR data in September 2014. The key trends were:

•          Private registered providers of social housing (PRPs) reported 2,666,053 units/bedspaces owned at 31 March 2014, an increase of 0.6% on the total for 2013.
•         Affordable Rent stock has increased by 102%
•          Stock sold to tenants under the Right to Buy (RTB), Preserved Right to Buy (PRTB) and Right to Acquire (RTA) schemes has increased by 78%
•          The average net rent for general needs stock owned by PRPs with more than 1,000 units/bedspaces was £92.30.

Read more on the HCA website.

Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) what steps his Department is taking to monitor the effect of the Preserved Right to Buy on the number of affordable homes;  

(2) how many homes have been sold to date through the Preserved Right to Buy; what steps his Department takes to ensure such homes can be replaced; and how many homes sold under Preserved Right to Buy have been replaced to date.  

Kris Hopkins:In the first year of the reinvigorated scheme (2012-13), there were 2,458 preserved right to buy sales.  As housing associations are independent organisations, and stock transfer agreements are private commercial contracts, we do not mandate what they do with receipts they receive from preserved right to buy sales. It is the Department’s expectation that these receipts should be used to help fund new homes for affordable rent, and we would encourage housing associations to work in partnership with local authorities, and use other sources of cross-subsidy, to help achieve this.

Government Raises Right To Buy Discounts

The government will offer increased discounts of up to £75,000 to council tenants who want to purchase their homes under the reinvigorated right to buy scheme.  Some other key points of the revised scheme include;

*No changes have been made to the qualifying criteria for Right to Buy or Preserved Right to Buy - tenants must have spent five years as public sector tenants.

*For the first time, additional homes sold under Right to Buy will be replaced by a new home for affordable rent, with receipts from sales recycled towards the cost of replacement.

*For the first time, there is provision to cover some of the cost of withdrawn applications. Authorities will now be able to retain £2,850 in London and £1,300 in the rest of England to cover the costs of administration on each sale.

Local authorities will be able to retain additional receipts for replacement housing - provided they can sign up to an agreement with Government that they will limit the use of those receipts to 30 per cent of the cost of the replacement homes.

Read more key points on the CLG website.