Khan Sets Out Plans To Help House Afghan Refugees

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced plans to help the city’s councils and housing associations support the arrival of Afghan refugees. Mr Khan said he will expand his new Right to Buy-back fund to help councils purchase homes which could be used to resettle families arriving from Afghanistan. Housing associations are also being encouraged to apply for funding for suitable homes that can be delivered quickly. Read more on the Evening Standard website.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/sadiq-khan-mayor-plans-help-afghan-refugees-london-b952414.html 

Landlord Spends £22m Buying Back Homes

In its unaudited accounts for 2020/21, Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) said it has purchased 73 of the 105 homes on the Paragon Estate in west London, which was evacuated in October last year after an intrusive survey identified several building safety concerns. NHG evacuated roughly 1,000 residents, including students living in student accommodation, while further investigative work was undertaken. It said this investigative work, which will “establish the full extent of any required structural and fire safety works”, is not yet complete and in the meantime NHG has offered to buy back the homes of leaseholders, including shared owners. Read more on Inside Housing.

Inside Housing - News - G15 landlord spends £22m buying back homes on development evacuated over safety issues

Town Halls Buy Back Right-To-Buy Homes

Councils have spent millions buying back homes they sold at a discount under Right-to-Buy laws to meet housing shortages. Islington council spent more than £6.2m buying back homes it sold to people for less than £1.3m, a Freedom of Information request reveals. Housing charities blame a lack of investment in social housing. The government has vowed to build more affordable houses and in February called the current market "broken". BBC News looked at local authority areas where waiting lists rose for four consecutive years since 2011 and chose 10 at random. Read more on the BBC website.

Desperate Councils Buying Back Homes They Were Forced To Sell

With housing waiting lists higher than ever, eviction rates rocketing and stock dwindling through right to buy and the impending compulsory sale of high value housing, some councils have resorted to desperate measures. Freedom of information requests show that of the £1bn raised since 2012 to replace right to buy, £27.3m of it has been used to buy back homes sold under right to buy. The government encourages the sale of council houses by offering attractive discounts to tenants, who understandably choose to buy. The council is then faced with dwindling stocks while waiting lists lengthen and homelessness spikes. So it uses its cash to buy back the homes it could not afford to lose in the first place. Read more on the Guardian website.

Council to Use Right to Buy Receipts to Fund New Affordable Housing

Tower Hamlets Council has agreed to use Right to Buy receipts to fund a number of schemes aimed at increasing housing supply in the area. The Council’s cabinet met to consider how to invest the £20.5 million to provide new affordable housing. It has agreed to invest £5 million in existing development schemes. Money from the receipts will also be used to fund a selective programme of Right to Buy ‘buy backs’ of properties located on council estates managed by Tower Hamlets Homes as well as four new council house building schemes which will see 180 affordable housing units built. The council will also take the opportunity to look at working with its housing partners on council funded schemes.  Read more on the Housing Excellence website.

Tory Council Spends £90m Buying Back the SAME Flats It Sold Off Under Right to Buy

Westminster City Council was notorious for a huge Right to Buy scandal in the 1980s, when Tory leader Dame Shirley Porter was found to have sold off council homes to likely Tory voters. The cost to the taxpayer at the time was roughly £27 million. Now, to tackle its crisis in affordable housing, the council has set up a charitable company called Westminster Community Homes. The company has spent £90.74 million buying back 295 ex-council homes, at an average cost of £307,593. A Mirror investigation has found that the prices being paid to buy back the homes are up to 22 times more than they were sold for. Read more on the Daily Mirror website.

Westminster City Council Spends Over £20 Million On 45 Flats Sold Under Right To Buy.

The average cost of the 45 former Council flats bought back by the Council is £419,000 with a further average cost of £36,000 in refurbishing the flats, giving a total cost of £20,445,000 – an average of £454,000 per flat. Labour Councillors say that many of the 45 flats sold by the Council would have been originally sold to their former Council tenant owners for less than £100,000 when taking in to account the discounts available under the Right to Buy. This latest news comes days after Westminster City Council revealed that it had bought 25 properties in Gray’s, Essex for over £3.6 million as temporary accommodation for homeless families.  Read more on the labourwestminster website.

Council Homes to Be Bought-Back in Housing Crisis Battle

Sandwell Council will buy-back council homes sold under the 'right to buy' scheme as it continues to battle a housing crisis. Around 20 ex-tenants have approached the council in the last year under the legislation's 'right of first refusal' clause, which states a homeowner who looks to sell their home within 10 years must first offer it to the previous landlord. And now the council's cabinet has passed a measure to speed up the process by allowing officers to negotiate purchases. Read more on the Express and Star website.

Housing Crisis: 'Children Will Have Nowhere to Live'

Kirklees Council is to decide whether to buy back houses sold under the Right to Buy scheme, in a bid to halt a growing social housing "crisis". The local authority has proposed bringing empty homes sold through the scheme back into use. Plans to build 400 council or affordable homes over the next four years will also be discussed at a forthcoming council meeting. The council said, without changes, "our children will have nowhere to live". Read more on the BBC website.

Plans to Buy Homes of Leaseholders Who Can’t Pay Repair Bills

Southwark Council plans to offer to buy the home of any of its 17,000 leaseholders struggling to find the cash for repair work. The council hopes to offer the leaseholder the opportunity to remain in the property as a tenant of the council, if legally allowed to do so. Southwark will fund the scheme with cash generated from right to buy sales. Cabinet papers say the council’s five-year £326 million housing investment programme will improve the value of homeowners’ properties but has led to repairs and maintenance charges of more than £20,000 for some leaseholders. Read more on Inside Housing.

ALMO Buys Back Right To Buy Homes

An ALMO has hailed its pilot scheme to buy back former right to buy homes as a success. Brighter Horizons, a charitable subsidiary of ALMO Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, received £300,000 from the HCA in 2009 to buy five former council properties. The charity then borrowed additional money to refurbish the homes, which are spread across Rochdale, and bring them up to the decent homes standard. RBH then managed the properties. Read more on Inside Housing.