Housing associations say they’ll sue if the Tories force them to sell off homes under right-to-buy
I have no intention of taking political sides in terms of the election build up however the implications of this one policy (which may not be bad in its objectives of promoting home ownership depending on your perspective) definitely need more work.
In tis current form some worrying thoughts come to mind in terms of this policy:
1) How can you replace one home with another when you only achieve up to 60% of the value of the home you have sold to invest in a new one?
2) Bearing in mind the real problems with bringing forward affordable housing in rural settings, when you sell rural rented stock in the public sector don’t you just ultimately force those renting into towns by further reducing rural supply?
3) Is the intended or unintended consequence of this not to push more vulnerable people into private rented housing?
The article tells us:
Housing associations set to be crippled by Conservative plans to extend the right-to-buy policy will launch a legal challenge against the move, they have said.
The Tories have announced that they will force housing associations to sell off homes at a fraction of their value despite warnings that the policy could cause the not-for-profits to go bankrupt.
Tony Stacey, chair of a group of 100 housing associations and chief executive of South Yorkshire Housing Association, told trade publication Inside Housing when the policy was first mooted in March that he would “definitely” launch a challenge.