Friday, 27 April 2018

Councils Spend Millions Using Right To Buy Flats As Temporary Accommodation


Town halls are spending millions of pounds a year renting ex-council flats from private landlords to provide accommodation for homeless households. Freedom of Information Act requests to more than 100 stock-retaining local authorities in England identified 23 that have been forced to spend millions leasing back homes sold under the Right to Buy policy for use as temporary accommodation. Together, they are paying buy-to-let landlords around £8.4m a year to rent 725 flats – all of which the councils built – for this purpose. Much of the bill will be footed by the national taxpayer in the form of housing benefit. Almost all the councils in question were in London and the South East. Read more on Inside Housing.

No comments: