Right to buy – Independent
August 17th, 2015
To describe social housing as subsidised – as critics of councils and housing associations often do – is a fallacy. The one-off development cost of building a social home is supported by government, but the rental value of that home repays the investment. Money spent on social housing quickly becomes a public asset.
Following the revelation that getting on for 40% of former council homes are now let out for private rent there have been a flurry of articles in the media, all of which I’ve read looking for nuggets of truth, but in my view this is the best one and I’ve picked out a few paragraphs of interest. I am so glad they included the paragraph on subsidy about which I have written elsewhere.
the Right to Buy did this at the expense of future generations. The housing crisis and welfare bill today’s Conservative Government is grappling to control were, in part at least, caused by Thatcher.
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had these properties not been removed from council ownership at huge discounts – a nationwide, loss-making, asset-stripping exercise […] most would be occupied by the same households, paying lower rent without the need to claim benefits.
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The “bedroom tax” encourages social tenants who have spare bedrooms to downsize – an impractical policy because […] large numbers of one- and two-bedroom properties have been sold off under the Right to Buy
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The Government spends more money supporting these families to find emergency accommodation than it ever would on maintaining a council housing portfolio.
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[See top of page for subsidy quote]
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the Right to Buy was a disastrous waste of public funds that, in the long term, only exacerbated social issues that governments of whatever political hue should seek to tackle.
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the extension to housing association tenants will help a select few at the expense of many. Meanwhile the Scottish Government axed the policy altogether.