Likely Poverty Impacts Of The Extension Of Right To Buy

New Joseph Rowntree Foundation research explores the impact of Right to Buy (RTB) to housing association tenants in need of low-cost rented homes. It also explores the likely impact on housing supply. The report shows that:

·         around 1.3 million housing association tenants will gain the RTB, but only around 180,000 of these are eligible and able to afford to exercise it;

·         total uptake of the Right to Buy over the first five years of operation is estimated at 128,000;

·         around 10 per cent of local authority housing nationally is high value for its size and region.

·         if social rented homes are replaced with Affordable Rented ones, rent levels, poverty and housing benefit costs will all increase;

·         if social rented homes are replaced with shared ownership or Starter Homes these will not be affordable to households who would otherwise have accessed the social rented homes

Download a copy of the report from the JRF website.

Inquiry Launched Into Low-Cost Housing

A Westminster inquiry has been launched into the effectiveness of government policies aimed at delivering low cost housing. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee has appealed for written evidence, including personal testimony, on measures to tackle the shortage of affordable homes to buy and rent. Policy areas to be examined include measures for increasing the supply of social housing and homes for affordable private rent. The committee will also look at the issue of supply, proposed changes to the planning system and the potential impact of a rent cap in the private sector. Read more on the Parliament website.

The Loss Of Our Low Rent Homes

It is challenging to predict the impact that the some of the Government’s housing policies might have on genuinely affordable homes in the future, but by looking at both present circumstances and what has happened in the past, we have been able to estimate the effect of three policies which we see as potentially having a large impact on homes for people with low incomes:

·         Extension of the Right to Buy for housing association tenants;

·         The forced sell-off of council homes;

·         The transfer of Section 106 contributions away from providing affordable homes for rent towards affordable home-ownership products, such as Starter Homes and shared ownership.

Looking five years into the future, what impact could these policies have on the number of low cost rented homes? Read more on the Shelter blog.

New Garden Cities Not Required To Include Low-Cost Homes

A Tory planning minister has admitted that the coalition's new wave of garden cities would not have to contain a single affordable home, despite Nick Clegg's claims that they would offer low-cost accommodation and help solve the UK's housing crisis. Asked by Labour whether the first garden city in Ebbsfleet would contain low-cost homes, Nick Boles, a Conservative minister, said the government would "not impose a particular level of affordable housing for housing schemes". "Unrealistic Section 106 agreements [which specify how many affordable homes should be built] result in no development, no regeneration and no community benefits," he added. Read more on the Guardian website.

Tory Council Has Created Housing Crisis

A Tory council's "coordinated policies to cut affordable homes" has created a housing crisis, a new study has claimed. The report says that by selling council homes on the open market, emptying and demolishing blocks of affordable housing, and allowing developers to make excess profits by including no low-cost homes in major schemes, Hammersmith and Fulham Council has fuelled a housing shortage in the borough. The report, prepared for Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter by housing expert Martin Peach, also accuses the local authority of manipulating statistics to hide housing need and classing households on incomes of £80,000 as a priority for rehousing. Read more on 24dash.