Affordable Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether homes funded under the new affordable homes programme from 2021-22 will be required to include a right to shared ownership.

Christopher Pincher: Right to Shared Ownership will give many social housing tenants the opportunity to purchase a stake in their home and take their first step into home ownership. At Budget we announced £12.2 billion of investment to build affordable homes, which is the biggest cash investment in affordable housing for a decade. As a condition of this funding, homes built with it must have the Right to Shared Ownership attached.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-03-12/28566

Right to Shared Ownership

The Government has announced changes to the shared ownership model, and that it intends to take forward Right to Shared Ownership as an official government policy. In a press statement, Secretary of State Robert Jenrick, said:

·         Tenants of all new housing association homes built with grant funding will get a Right to Shared Ownership (RTSO).

·         The Government will work with housing associations on a voluntary basis to determine what offer can be made to tenants in existing homes.

·         For all shared ownership homes the minimum stake required will reduce from 25% to 10% and residents will be able to staircase by 1%.

·         The resales process will be streamlined and fees will be made ‘fairer and more proportional’.

Read more on the NHF website.

https://www.housing.org.uk/latest-updates/update-on-right-to-shared-ownership/

Duncan Smith's Great Council House Giveaway

Millions of council tenants could become the owner of most of their home for free, under a plan being pushed by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith. Tenants living in local authority housing for three years would be handed 70 per cent of its equity then rent the rest of the home, in a scheme to slash the housing benefit bill. Mr Duncan Smith wants to reduce welfare spending, and this Right to Shared Ownership idea is being considered. The stake would be equivalent to discounts under the Right to Buy scheme – up to 70 per cent of the value, or a maximum of £103,900 in London and £77,900 outside the capital. He believes it could unleash a new generation of part-home owners as well as slash the £25billion a year housing benefit bill. Read more on the Daily Mail website.