Housing crisis fear over new sell-off demands
More than 8,000 homes to go under right-to-buy
YORKSHIRE WILL be plunged deeper into a housing crisis if the Government presses ahead with plans to extend its Right-to-Buy scheme, it is warned today.
Councils will be forced to sell off thousands of homes on the private market according to new analysis of the “potentially devastating” impact of proposals put forward by the Conservatives.
Under the Housing Bill, which requires local authorities sell off their most valuable council houses when they become vacant to fund extended discounts and build more affordable homes, some councils in the region could lose more than a quarter of their total housing stock.
Homelessness charity Shelter estimates that in Yorkshire and the Humber, 3.6 per cent of properties are above the Government threshold – which equates to the forced sale of 8,365 homes.
Harrogate, which is already struggling to cope with what housing officers describe as “a pressing need for affordable homes”, stands to lose 29 per cent of its total stock. In York the figure has been put at 18.3 per cent of local authority housing, or 1,342 properties if the bill, due before the Commons between October and November, is passed.
Chief executive Campbell Robb told The Yorkshire Post: “At a time when millions of families are struggling to find somewhere affordable to live, plans to sell off large swathes of the few genuinely affordable homes we have left is only going to make things worse.”
Extending the Right to Buy – first enshrined in law by Margaret Thatcher – to housing association tenants was one of the key pledges put forward in the Tories’ pre-election manifesto. The Government has promised to ensure one-for-one replacement.
But the National Housing Federation (NHF), which represents housing associations across the UK, and local authorities in Yorkshire, has already voiced fears that it will be unable to meet the increased demand created by implementation of the scheme which has been rejected by Welsh and Scottish governments.
Jo Allen, the NHF’s external affairs manager for Yorkshire, said: “We must concentrate on making sure the Right to Buy policy contributes to increasing the supply of desperately needed new homes. Housing associations are ready to work with Government to make this happen.”
The Rural Housing Alliance and Rural Services Network have joined forces in a call for the Conservatives to grant exemptions in certain areas.
Plans to sell off swathes of homes is only going to make things worse Campbell Robb, chief executive
of charity Shelter
Spokesman Andy Dean said: “Lack of affordable housing is a problem in most villages across England and there are difficulties replacing lost stock.”
Shelter has gone one step further, suggesting it is binned altogether. “The Government needs to scrap this proposal and start helping ordinary families struggling with sky-high housing costs,” said Mr Robb.
“If George Osborne is serious about turning around the crisis, the Autumn Spending Review is his last chance to invest in the genuinely affordable homes this country desperately needs.”
THOUSANDS OF hard-pressed families will be forced out of parts of the region and into the unstable and expensive world of private renting if local authorities have to sell off their most valuable homes, claim campaigners.
Local authorities across Yorkshire and the Humber, already struggling to meet the demand for affordable housing, have warned that they will be unable to replace the number of homes they stand to lose in an extension of the Right to Buy scheme.
Critics have cast doubt over the Government’s assurances that requiring a replacement to be built, the scheme will, in effect, double the number of homes available and raise the proportion of homeowners in England.
Analysis from Shelter suggests that in Harrogate, for example, extending Right to Buy and will lead to the forced sale of 1,127 houses.
Housing officers have proposed to spend £1m of the £1.9m raised through the sale of local authority homes to purchase up to ten homes in the district – but critics have cast doubt over how this will be done when the average house price is £271,935 and currently there are only three apartments on the market for less than £100,000 which are not retirement properties.
And a report published by the borough council in August warned cabinet members it may have to resort to buying back former council-owned homes previously sold through Right to Buy.
In York, where 1,432 homes are valued above the Government’s threshold, city councillors have
It will result in exile for these people from families
and roots The Rural Services Network and Rural
Housing Alliance
previously tried to opt out of the scheme.
The call for exemptions in certain parts of England has been supported by the Rural Housing Alliance and Rural Services Network.
The organisations shared “deep concern” over the potential impacts on the existing and future supply of rural affordable housing.
A spokesman told The Yorkshire Post: “There is already a severe lack of affordable housing in rural areas, with those dependent on local incomes unable to afford to buy in the market and a declining availability of rented affordable homes.
The extension of the Right to Buy would make this situation very much worse by reducing current supply and future delivery.
“In so doing it will remove the opportunity for those on low incomes to live in rural areas, undermining the social and economic viability of rural communities, resulting in the outcome this Government has stated it seeks to avoid, the exile of these people from their families, roots, shared history and each other.”
Leeds stands to be hardest-hit in the region, as the scheme could lead to the forced sale of 3,455 local authority-owned properties.
Coun Richard Lewis, executive member for regeneration at Leeds Council, said: “Extend- ing the Right to Buy for housing associations is bad enough, but forcing councils to sell even more homes really is a double whammy.
In Leeds, the average rent for a council house is £74.38 a week. The Local Housing Allowance – the maximum amount of rent the council will pay for a privately rented home is £122.36 a week for a two-bedroom home in the city.
“We will have to pay nearly £50 over the odds for exactly the same home,” said Coun Lewis.
“The working tenant getting no housing benefit will have to pay more – pushing them further towards poverty just to have a roof over their head.
“Indeed, the average weekly market rent in high value areas of Leeds is £229 a week.
“It is £155 a week in mid-market areas, more than double the council’s average rent.
“Council and housing association properties are often the only types of homes within reach for young people in higher value areas – taking these away is social cleansing.”
THE WARNING by the homelessness charity Shelter that Yorkshire faces losing more than 8,000 council homes in a sell-off designed to raise funds for a new right-to-buy scheme is a matter of concern.
The aspiration to own a home is deeply ingrained in British people, and the Government is to be applauded for reviving the right-to-buy concept that was such a notable political and popular success of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.
It is a policy that can make all the difference between being able to own a home and it being beyond reach.
Against a backdrop of relentlessly rising property prices and ever increasing deposits being required, right-to-buy is likely to prove for some the only realistic route to home ownership.
Nevertheless, the need for social housing remains as acute as ever in the face of increasing population and the many people on low incomes who rely on the moderate rents and security of tenure offered by council accommodation to keep a roof over their heads.
Losing such numbers of council houses in Yorkshire will put local authorities under considerable pressure, not least given their duty to provide accommodation for the homeless.
It would be a dreadful misfiring of Government policy if an initiative aimed at allowing more people to own a home resulted in those needing somewhere to live being unable to find shelter.
If the new right-to-buy is match the success of Mrs Thatcher’s, the means must be found to replenish the stock of housing to be sold off.