Right-to-buy discount is absurd
‘Given the scale of London’s housing crisis, it is an outrage this money is not put to better use’
Tom Copley
YOUR article [“Tenants on £100k may get ‘right-to-buy’ discount”, June 8] highlights the absurdity of the proposed extension of Right to Buy to housing association tenants.
This is a deeply flawed policy — one the Prime Minister probably anticipated putting on the chopping board during coalition negotiations.
The National Housing Federation estimates the policy would cost UK taxpayers £12 billion if all able and eligible tenants exercised their new right. Of this, £2 billion would be spent in Greater London — enough to build 66,000 much-needed new affordable homes in the capital.
Given the scale of London’s housing crisis, it is an outrage that this recently discovered money is not put to better use in tackling this crisis for the benefit of all Londoners.
This state-sanctioned asset stripping of housing associations — many of which are charities — will also undermine their ability to borrow for new house building, further intensifying the shortage we face in London, turning a crisis into a catastrophe. Tom Copley, Labour’s London Assembly housing spokesperson THE news that thousands of people on six-figure salaries could soon enjoy discounts of £100,000 on their housing association homes reinforces how unfair David Cameron’s policy really is.
London has a desperate shortage of affordable housing and every day in Hornsey & Wood Green I speak to people who are affected, from young professionals stuck in private rented homes paying sky high rent to families with children struggling in overcrowded, poor conditions who have been on the council’s housing waiting list for years with little hope of success.
Our social housing is precious and it is already much too scarce — those with secure tenancies in good quality housing association properties are the lucky ones. Our efforts and limited resources should be focused on building more genuinely affordable homes and tackling soaring rents and poor conditions in the private sector. Catherine West, MP for Hornsey & Wood Green THE fundamental problem is that this article is based on an assumption that rented accommodation is a poor second best to home ownership. But affordable new homes are close to non-existent, and renting has recently become the most common form of occupancy in many London constituencies.
Good quality social housing in good supply is an integral part of the mix, but the reality is that there is not enough housing of any description — apart from the penthouses of the super-rich — to go round. What London and Londoners need is housing they can afford, rather than selling off an already scarce resource.