Council’s '£13m Hole' In Right-To-Buy Sales

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.