Concern Over Plans To Withhold Right To Buy Payments

Ministers are set to insist on withholding 30% of compensation payment for Right to Buy discounts until replacement homes are started. Associations, in negotiations with ministers on the details of the voluntary scheme, have been pushing against plans for the government to pay 70% of the compensation on sale and the remainder when a replacement home is started. However ministers will not budge on this point as they want a lever to ensure replacement homes are built. Although the NHF insists the deal with government is for full compensation even if homes are not replaced, the emerging split compensation plan is causing concern that associations might not in some instances be able to receive the full open market value of the homes they sell under the scheme. Read more on Inside Housing.

Association Quits NHF Over RTB Deal

A housing association has opted to leave the National Housing Federation (NHF), claiming it has lost trust in the body following the vote in favour of the voluntary extension of the Right to Buy.  Westfield Housing Association recently voted in favour of not renewing its membership. Westfield said smaller associations had become “marginalised” in the run-up to the vote in October, claiming they were not given the advance warning of the voluntary deal received by larger landlords. The association claimed the NHF agreement with government on a voluntary extension showed it had bowed to pressure from its larger members, after opposing the plan to extend Right to Buy. It also accused NHF chief executive David Orr of “cranking up” the threat of associations being re-classified as public bodies by the Office for National Statistics, and potentially losing independence, if the voluntary deal was not approved. Read the full statement on the Westfield website.

Thousands Of Homes Face RTB Exemption

Housing associations could exempt hundreds of thousands of homes from the Right to Buy extension, including any built as a result of a planning obligation. Five housing associations - Riverside, L&Q, Sovereign, Saffron Housing and Thames Valley - launched a Right to Buy pilot last week, providing the first evidence of how the voluntary deal is likely to work. The landlords are free to decide which properties to exempt. Those excluded will include homes built under a Section 106 deal or for any form of specialist housing.This freedom is likely to apply when the full Right to Buy (RTB) extension is rolled out in April - with Section 106 homes set to remain exempt in most cases. Read more on Inside Housing.

Right to Acquire Scheme – Parliamentary Written Answer

Tom Blenkinsop:  To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to make the level of discount received for tenants who exercise the Right to Acquire the same as for those who exercise the Right to Buy.

Brandon Lewis: The Government has a manifesto commitment to extend the Right to Buy to housing association tenants. The voluntary agreement we have made with the National Housing Federation will give 1.3 million housing association tenants the opportunity to buy their home with an equivalent discount to the Right to Buy, delivering the manifesto commitment. This will include those tenants who currently have a Right to Acquire.

Road Testing Right To Buy - What Happens Next

Ever since it was announced in April 2015, extending Right to Buy to housing association tenants has generated lots of interest. There were lots of angles to explore, lots of different views to debate and discuss and lots of speculation about the impact. When the Prime Minister accepted the housing association offer to voluntarily sell homes to tenants with a discount paid for by the Government, this raised a whole new set of questions. When would housing associations start selling homes? Who would be eligible to buy their home? How would the discounts be paid? Read more on the CIH website.

10-Year Rule For RTB Pilot

The Right to Buy pilot scheme will be limited to tenants who have lived in social housing for 10 years. Five housing associations have launched a pilot of the voluntary Right to Buy scheme for housing association tenants, ahead of a wider roll out next year.  Only current housing association tenants who have lived in any form of social housing for a decade will be eligible to access the discounts. The housing associations will all also limit the number of maximum number of sales they carry out under the pilot. Under the council Right to Buy scheme, tenants are eligible after living in a property for three years. Read more on Inside Housing.

Tenants To Get A Say On RTB Deal

Tenants will be able to air their reservations to David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation at a TPAS hosted roundtable event.  TPAS have made the point repeatedly over the last few weeks that the voice of tenants has not been heard enough in all the discussions on the Right to Buy voluntary deal. They have also become increasingly concerned that tenants are not being consulted enough in helping organisations to manage the impact of the 1% rent cut on the services they value most from their landlord. Decisions have, and are, being taken that may fundamentally change housing associations and the nature of services they provide. Yet the people that receive those services, that pay the rent, that may want to exercise the right to buy have not been consulted on their views. Read more on the TPAS website.

Housing Associations – Written Statement [Edit]

Greg Clark: Housing associations are voluntary organisations and we are committed to reflecting their historic voluntary ethos and strongly believe they should continue to be independent of government. That belief is reflected in our decision to extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants by accepting a voluntary offer from the sector rather than implementing the policy through legislation. As set out in our agreement with the housing association sector on Right to Buy, the Government is committed to developing deregulatory measures to help housing associations build more homes and help more people into home ownership. I now intend to bring forward a package of deregulatory measures that will deliver this commitment while also aiming to return housing associations to the private sector in the future. Read the full statement on the Parliament website.

Government Accused Of Doing Backroom Deal Over Right To Buy

The government has done a backroom deal with housing associations in order to avoid proper public scrutiny of its plans to extend the right to buy policy, the shadow housing minister has told parliament. John Healey put forward an urgent question about a deal struck between housing associations and the government concerning Conservative plans to extend the right-to-buy scheme to housing association tenants. Housing associations voted in favour of striking a voluntary deal with the government to allow their tenants to buy housing association homes at a discount, in return for compensation. The deal means the government’s proposals will not need to be passed into law and debated in parliament. Healey said: “This is a backroom deal to sidestep legislation and the proper public scrutiny in parliament. We have said from the start this is unworkable and wrong. And so it is proving.” Read more on the Guardian website.

Government Confirms Right To Buy Deal

The government has formally accepted the NHF voluntary offer on Right to Buy. The joint announcement confirmed that ministers had accepted the verdict from Friday’s vote by housing associations to sign up to the deal brokered between NHF chief executive David Orr and the CLG team. Prime minister David Cameron predicted the scheme would be under way by next year. He said in his speech to party conference: “Some people said this would be impossible and that housing associations would never stand for it. Today we have secured a deal with housing associations to give their tenants the Right to Buy their home.” Read more on 24dash.

Charity Commission Raises Concerns Over RTB Deal

The Charity Commission has raised concerns over the National Housing Federation’s (NHF) voluntary offer to extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants.  In a statement responding to a letter from shadow housing minister John Healey, the commission said it raised “a number of concerns” about the Right to Buy extension with the CLG during meetings earlier this summer. In a statement, the commission said “there are aspects” of the new Right to Buy voluntary offer “which reduce some of the charity law concerns” it had previously raised with the CLG. It said: “However, they [the new plans] also raise, as did the original proposals, issues about their impact on how trustees administer charitable housing associations in the best interests of their beneficiaries for the public benefit. The commission will be speaking to NHF and CLG to explore these further and contribute to the detail of any proposals taken forward in the coming weeks.” Read more on Inside Housing.

Revealed: Right To Buy Deal Results

It has been revealed that 86% of NHF members voted in support of the deal, representing 93% of the sector's total rented homes. Deal in numbers;

·         Members representing 93% of all housing association rented homes supported a voluntary offer

·         Members representing 5% of all housing association rented homes said ‘no’ to making a voluntary offer

·         Members representing 3% of all housing association rented homes abstained or did not respond

·         Of all members, 55% said yes, 6% said no and 39% of our members abstained or did not respond to the proposal

·         Of all 584 members, 370 responded to the survey (subsidiaries are included as groups)

Read more on 24dash.

What If London Housing Associations Reject Tory Right To Buy Deal?

Islington’s James Murray is one of several politicians opposing the NHF proposal that HAs should sign up to a voluntary RtB and he’s sent his borough’s HAs an interesting letter. He first seeks to persuade them that the forthcoming Housing Bill can be moderated or even defeated with the help of the House of Lords and London Tory MPs. He then floats a further reason to say no to the Tory-NHF deal: “We try to make sure that when we offer funding or other support for new developments, the benefit of that support is retained within our borough. If the majority of housing associations sign the government’s agreement, it is unclear how those who do not sign will be affected. However, if it means they remain exempt from the Right to Buy, it would leave them in a particularly strong position to reassure us that the benefit of any funding, land, or other support we put into their new development schemes will stay within our borough in perpetuity. We would welcome this reassurance when deciding how best we can use our resources.” Read more on the Guardian website.

Extending The RTB: Deal Or No Deal?

The extension of the Right to Buy (RTB) to housing association tenants is to be funded by the compulsory sale of local authority housing assets. However, it would appear that local authorities are to be nothing more than interested spectators to the voluntary deal that seems to have been struck between the government and the National Housing Federation (NHF) - details of which are currently being put to housing associations. The NHF offer document says: "In line with its manifesto commitment, we anticipate the government would put in place arrangements to manage the financial costs of the policy to ensure that the cost of sales does not exceed the value of receipts received from the sale of high value council assets". Given that the government have not yet honored the promise that the government "will consult on whether to cap expensive properties by region or by smaller housing market areas", this seems to be putting the cart before the horse! Until that consultation is completed, the government cannot be clear on the value of receipts that would be generated by the sale of "high value council assets" or whether this will be sufficient to cash flow the take up of RTB by housing association tenants. Read more on the ARCH website.

Healey Steps In Over 'Bounce' Right To Buy Deal

The shadow housing minister has stepped up pressure over the voluntary deal for housing associations on Right to Buy. John Healey has written the Homes and Communities Agency, Charity Commission and the National Audit Office, regarding the government's proposal to extend the Right to Buy. He has called on them to ensure that housing associations are not ‘bounced’ by government ministers into voluntarily agreeing to sign up to Right to Buy rules. Healey has written ahead of the deadline on 2 October that the government has laid down - giving housing associations just six working days to decide on the voluntary deal. Read more on 24dash.

Historic Trusts Expect RTB Exemption Under Deal

Housing associations established by Victorian philanthropists expect their historic charitable homes to be exempt from the Right to Buy extension, under a proposed voluntary deal. Four landlords, which hold thousands of homes built without any government grant, had been outraged at plans to sell them to tenants at a discount. It is understood the landlords – Affinity Sutton, Southern, Peabody and Guinness – have received assurances that these properties would be exempted under a voluntary deal proposed by the National Housing Federation (NHF). The proposed deal would see tenants of these homes offered a portable discount to buy a home on the open market instead, it is believed. Read more on Inside Housing.

Deal Over Right To Buy Could Lead To Privatising Housing Associations

Rather than face the prospect of legislation that would force associations to sell their homes the National Housing Federation, has spent the summer conducting secret negotiations to offer a “voluntary deal” to the government.  There is a great deal of ambiguity about the exact legal status of housing associations – but at present, their £60bn of debt does not sit on the government’s balance sheet. A compulsory Right to Buy scheme could change this forever: if private assets can be forcibly sold, they are clearly not private assets. The government could decide to move to privatise housing associations. The rumour is that investment bank Goldman Sachs has been appointed, to model how a nationalisation and privatisation of housing associations could be carried out.

The NHF believes that introducing a voluntary Right to Buy scheme will avoid compulsion and stave off privatisation. Read more on the CityMetric website.