Right to Buy Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Tristram Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the residence requirements are for (a) existing right-to-buy entitlements and (b) the proposed extension of right-to-buy to housing association tenants for (i) non-EU foreign nationals, (ii) EU foreign nationals and (iii) UK citizens.

Brandon Lewis: Before 2006 all applicants for Government supported home ownership had to have indefinite leave to remain in the UK. The last Labour Government changed these rules in 2006. Subject to EU Treaty negotiation, we will introduce a residency test for social housing, requiring European Economic Area nationals to have lived in the UK for 4 years. This means that European Economic Area nationals would not be eligible for Right to Buy until they had lived in this country for a minimum of seven years. A tenant must have had a public sector tenancy within the UK for three years before qualifying for Right to Buy.

Right-To-Buy Extension Could Hand Cheap Homes To Immigrants,

Homes could be bought with a significant discount by migrants that have been in the UK for just three years under the Government's Right-to-Buy programme, a Labour MP has warned. Tristram Hunt told The Huffington Post UK that the Conservative election pledge to extend the policy to 1.2m housing association properties could "exacerbate concern about immigration". Mr Hunt says he has been told at least one in ten homes go to people from outside the UK at one housing association in his Stoke-on-Trent constituency. The MP says against the "ill-considered" plan the Government "must be sensitive to the potential effects" of migrants getting homes amid long housing waiting lists. Read more on the Huffington Post website.