Shared Ownership Right To Buy ‘Will Worsen Housing Crisis’

Sector bodies have said that proposals to offer housing association tenants the right to buy upwards of 10% of their homes could “worsen the housing crisis”, and warned the government to understand the impact on lenders before pushing ahead. At the Conservative Party conference, housing secretary Robert Jenrick announced plans to offer housing associations “an automatic right to buy a share of their home”. New build homes would be automatically included, with existing homes added via voluntary agreements with associations, Mr Jenrick said. But the NHF and PlaceShapers warned that the proposals could have consequences for loan deals and make the housing crisis worse. Read more on Inside Housing.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/shared-ownership-right-to-buy-will-worsen-housing-crisis-sector-bodies-warn-63505?utm_source=Housing60&utm_medium=email&utm_content=article_link&utm_campaign=H60

Pay To Stay Meetings Cancelled As Policies Face Delay

Meetings of the government’s Pay to Stay working group have been cancelled as several key measures in the Housing and Planning Act look set to be delayed. The government has cancelled scheduled meetings despite the policy- under which higher earning tenants pay up to market rent- originally being planned for implementation in April next year. It is not clear why the meetings have been cancelled, but sector figures this week said it suggested a delay. Councils have been urging ministers to put the start date back to give them time to prepare. The news emerged days after a senior civil servant admitted the Right to Buy (RTB) extension to housing association tenants is set to be delayed as a result of the Brexit vote. Read more on Inside Housing.

Right To Buy Extension Plan “Speculative And Vague”

The Public Accounts Committee has slammed the government’s “entirely speculative” approach to its plan to extend Right to Buy discounts to 1.3 million housing association tenants. In an unusual step, the cross-party committee examined the policy ahead of implementation, scrutinising information from the CLG. Publishing its findings, the PAC highlighted a lack of clarity around how the policy would be funded or what its wider financial impact would be. PAC chair Meg Hillier said the government should be “embarrassed” by the report’s findings. “Extending Right to Buy will affect many thousands of people yet the department has failed to provide basic information to support its stated aims. Instead we have heard vague assertions about what it will accomplish and how,” she said. Read more on the Public Finance website.

1% Of Tenants Take Up The Right To Buy

Less than 1% of the housing association tenants offered the chance to purchase their home under a pilot of the Right to Buy have so far made a formal application to buy. Just 443 tenants have put in a formal application to buy their home under the flagship government housing policy since the pilots launched in January, out of more than 48,000 households in the pilot areas the scheme was marketed to. This is well below Sheffield Hallam University projections for demand, which suggested around 7% of tenants would have the means and the desire to buy under the scheme. Read more on Inside Housing.

Right to Buy Scheme: Housing Associations – Parliamentary Written Answer

Mr Roger Godsiff:  To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether housing association tenants who part-buy their properties under shared ownership will be able to use Right To Buy to purchase either a share or all of that property.

Brandon Lewis: As is the case with the existing Right to Buy, the agreement with housing associations and the National Housing Federation to extend Right to Buy discounts to housing association tenants will not apply to those people who already own a share in their home, including those who purchased their home under shared ownership.

England Could Lose 300,000 Socially Rented Homes By 2020

An estimated 300,000 socially rented homes could be lost in England by 2020. The Government's drive to boost home ownership will radically change the housing landscape across the country, MPs in the Public Accounts Committee were told. The extension of right-to-buy to housing association tenants combined with other policies to increase owner occupancy will radically reduce the number of socially rented homes. Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, told the committee: "We have done some analysis looking forward on the loss of social-rented housing, based on right-to-buy and the current policy, the proposed extension, the shift from social to affordable rent and then sales. And by 2020 we think there will be a loss of about 300,000-odd socially rented homes across the country.” Read more on the BT website.

1 In 4 Forced Council House Sales Could Be Bungalows

The Housing and Planning Bill will compel Local Authorities to sell off high value housing stock as it becomes vacant to fund the Right to Buy extension for Housing Association tenants. But new analysis shows that high demand for bungalows will mean that homes lived in by older people, in particular those who have a sickness or disability, are almost three times more likely to be sold off and will be more difficult to replace. The numbers are drawn from Understanding the likely poverty impacts of the extension of Right to Buy to housing association tenants, a report written for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The report finds that Bungalows make up 9% per cent of Local Authority owned housing, but are likely to make up 25% of high value property sales due to their higher cost and more frequent vacancies.  Read more on the JRF website.

Committee Expresses Concerns Over Funding Of Right To Buy

The Communities & Local Government Committee comes to the following view:

"The Government proposes to fund the Right to Buy discounts for housing association tenants with the proceeds from the sale of high value council homes. However we believe that public policy should usually be funded by central Government, rather than through a levy on local authorities."

The Committee also finds the robustness of the funding model for the RTB discounts is extremely questionable, calling on the Government to set out the fully costed evidence for the proposals. Read more on the Parliament website.

RTB Pilots: 5.7% Of Tenants Register Interest

An average of 5.7% of housing association tenants contacted about the extended Right to Buy pilots have registered an interest in buying their homes. Figures obtained by Inside Housing from the five landlords involved in the pilot show 1,612 tenants expressed an interest in using the Right to Buy, out of 48,345 households in the pilot areas contacted.  Demand has been highest in London and the South East, with 8.4% of tenants told about L&Q’s pilot in eight London boroughs registering an interest. Read more on Inside Housing.

Social Rented Housing: Rents – Parliamentary Written Answer

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to Clauses 19 to 22 of the draft Welfare Reform and Work Bill, whether the compulsory one per cent annual reduction of rents in social housing will apply to housing association tenants on affordable rents.

Brandon Lewis: Clause 19 of the draft Welfare Reform and Work Bill requires registered providers of social housing in England to reduce the rents payable by their individual tenants by 1% per annum for four years from 1 April 2016. The reductions will apply to rented social housing, including Affordable Rent properties. Exceptions are set out in clause 20 and in subsequent regulations. We intend to clarify how rents for new tenancies starting after 1 April 2016 will be set, and how the reductions will apply to these tenancies.  

 

Right-To-Buy Will Hit Affordable Homes

Rural housing campaigners are warning that the government's plan to extend right to buy legislation could decimate the provision of affordable housing. Ministers intend to allow housing association tenants in England to buy their homes at a discount. But the plans have been criticised by rural housing groups, who say they will further restrict the already scarce supply of affordable homes.

The government says it is listening to the concerns of campaigners. Exact details of the scheme will be announced in the autumn. Read more on the BBC website.

Right-To-Buy Sales Hit Seven-Year High

More than 12,300 social homes were sold off by councils in England through right-to-buy in 2014-15, official figures show, the highest number in seven years.  Over the same period, the number of new social homes started or purchased by local authorities came to 1,903. Charities said the failure to replace all existing sales showed that extending the policy to housing association tenants would have a significant impact on the number of affordable homes. Data from the CLG showed London boroughs accounted for 34% of sales, with tenants taking advantage of a discount of up to £102,700 on market value.  Elsewhere in the country, tenants were able to buy their properties for up to £77,000 less than the market rate. Download the figures from the GovUK website.

Tenants on £100k May Get ‘Right to Buy’ Discount

Thousands of people earning as much as £100,000 a year could qualify for six-figure discounts funded by the taxpayer under David Cameron’s controversial new right to buy plans. Government data show that significant numbers of housing association tenants on four times the average salary will qualify for the £104,000 London discount.  Critics said the disclosure made a mockery of Mr Cameron’s vow to help “working people” enjoy the dream of home ownership and one senior London Tory MP urged ministers to “iron out its obvious iniquities”. Government data show that there are 21,000 households in social properties, including council and housing association homes, who have incomes higher than £60,000. Read more on the Evening Standard website.