Angela Rayner considers abolishing Right to Buy – despite personal gain

Right to buy was always a very short sighted idea however well meaning its intention. Council housing belongs to the taxpayer and is for the use of those that cannot afford to buy or rent on the open market. I’ve lost count of the amount of people that have abused it to simply enrich themselves. This country needs more long term thinking.

the reality is the country can't afford the right to buy scheme, it's selling off PUBLIC assets for private gain. Yes it needs to be scrapped. Those that have resided for years in council properties will be paying very low rent, so it doesn't equate that the state should then subsidise their purchase too. Council property was built on taxpayers money to be able to rent to those who cannot afford to rent privately or buy privately.

The push should be the state building more social homes no selling off the current assets.

Giving people a large discount because they are poor enough to live in a council property but rich enough to afford to take it on, and profit later all at the expense of the taxpayer is crazy

Did this lady sell to benefit from what she is now thinking of doing. Very suspect

Stopping RTB for council housing should also extend to killing the idea of tenants having a legal right to buy from their private landlords at a discount.

When RTB was first introduced Councils had huge numbers of deteriorating houses they couldn't afford to maintain. In the 1980s these weren't nice modern houses, but often houses with 40 or 50 years of hard use. Certainly in the 1950s it wasn't unusual for families to have in excess of 10 children in those 2 and 3 bedroom Council houses. Bedroom entitlement hadn't been invented back then.
The discount was often less than the cost of the necessary modernization works. My Council RTB house in 1987 had dry rot throughout, antiquated night storage heaters, single glazed sash windows, very few electric sockets, no insulation, etc. The only bit that didn't need replacing was the roof.
A great many Council houses were in a similar state (maybe not dry rot).

The RTB discounts have changed a few times since it was first introduced so there is no reason not to change it again. At one point the maximum discount was £30K.

Due to the government rent increase formula for Social Housing the gap between Social and PRS rents has widened considerably in recent years. This has left Social Housing providers in a very precarious financial position (especially now Awaabs law exists). There was an article a few days ago about one Council selling any Social house that needs more than £10K of work. Councils don't get much done for £10K, so in most cases this would be relatively minor work. Why can't these houses be offered to existing Social tenants or people on the housing list who can demonstrate the skills or budget to do the necessary work as a new type of buying scheme? It seems counterintuitive that the people who have been enjoying half price rent for the longest are entitled to the biggest discount if they want to buy their Council house. Especially as the condition of the property isn't especially taken into account.

I firmly believe a RTB of some sort is good for both tenants and Social Housing providers (off loading expensive to maintain stock) but the discounts should be far lower than they currently are. Enough to make buying a realistic possibility but not the huge bung it currently is.

Does Ms Rayner want to compel us to sell our property at a discount to our tenants as suggested by Ranjan in his latest video while she gets rid of the the discounts given to Council tenants?

The discounts given to tenants in council houses should stop.

Ms Rayner of course has already had her cake and she has eaten it!

So it states
An analysis by the i newspaper reveals that in some areas of England, single people could lose more than £600 if the council tax discount is binned.. Well had my father still be alive he would loose £875 if they scrapped the 25% discount. This is the problem surveys are never based on the south east prices and the reality of living in the south. Our prices are a lot higher all round

Reply to the comment left by Stella at 04/09/2024 - 10:40
Thanks for highlighting this, I know it was on the cards some years ago but this is the first I’ve heard of it since Corbyns GE failed attempt.

I’ve not watched the video fully but I’d be interested to know if they intend to charge CGT on the sale if this is forced on us (rhetorical question)

Reply to the comment left by Stella at 04/09/2024 - 10:40
Do you have a credible link for this please? I can’t find anything online

Thanks