27 February 2013

Number of tenants buying their council home doubles in past year


Laura Sharman

The number of people buying their council home has doubled since last year, according to new figures on the Government’s Right to Buy scheme.

The figures show that Right to Buy sales doubled from 1,041 between July and September 2012, to 2,010 between October and December of that year. This means 3,495 council-owned properties have been sold since the scheme was re-launched last April, generating £210.

Housing minister, Mark Prisk, said: ‘The reinvigorated Right to Buy has opened the door to home ownership for thousands of tenants across the country and I’m delighted to see so many taking up this opportunity.

‘But from the 200,000 hits on our website, to the councils that report to me the surge they’ve seen in applications, I know there are many more that want to follow in their footsteps.’

Right to Buy offers tenants discounts of up to £75,000 of the value of their homes. Income raised from the scheme was be invested back into affordable homes for rent.





Your comments

Deja Vu. Thatcher promised that the sales would fund more council house building but little got built including shamefully by the Labour government. And so it goes on in spite of the overwhelming need and the continuing housing crisis and the spare capacity in the building industry. Councils should be empowered to buy empty houses and those on the market.

Patrick Newman, ex local government, Stevenage, Added: Wednesday, 27 February 2013 05:26 PM

In the past RTB led to stripping out many of the desirable properties mainly 3 bedroom houses leaving housing stock short of providing family sized homes. Govt. debt was paid off with little left for authorities who weren't allowed to build. Discounts up to ?75k aren't as bad as the 80's but won't the same probelms still occur? Who's going to to be in charge of buiilding affordable homes? The receipts won't cover the housing stock lost what are the plans for the shortfall?

Stephen Reimer, Added: Wednesday, 27 February 2013 02:44 PM



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