Extending the Right to Buy Will Not Solve Housing Shortage

The problem with selling publicly owned assets is that after they are sold, they are gone forever. The commitment to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants will distract from the central problem of a shortage of homes, not solve it. Only in a country that fetishizes property ownership could political justification for the plan come on grounds of democratic fulfilment. An economic rationale is harder to find. About 36 per cent of right-to-buy properties in London are now in the hands of private landlords. They, in turn, often benefit from housing benefit payments. So quite what the advantage is for the taxpayer from footing the bill for the discounts offered, only to then end up subsidising private landlords, is unclear. Read more on the Huffington Post website.