Government plans to suspend council house tenants’ right to buy in property hot spots throughout London and the South East have been backed by housing experts.
Speaking at the Labour party conference, deputy prime minister John Prescott told delegates: ” In these areas of severe housing shortage the right to buy is denying families the right to a home.
“I’m not saying that we will end the right to buy. No one is seeking to turn the clock back 20 years, but the right to buy undermines and continues to undermine social housing in designated housing crisis areas.”
Sources in the government have suggested that the suspension will take the shape of specific restrictions in areas of very high demand and low supply, such as Oxford and Camden.
It is understood that the measures will try to clamp down on council housing being sold to private companies, which then sell the stock on for up to three times the amount it was bought for.
The news was welcomed by Alastair Jackson, head of the Policy and the Homelessness charity shelter: “Trying to increase housing stock in London and the South East is like trying to fill a leaking bucket. By 2005, we will have had to of spent £1bn just to replace what we have lost through the right to buy.”
London’s deputy mayor Nicki Gavron also gave the proposals her support. “Right to buy is undermining all we are trying to achieve. It is a scandal that no market housing is being sold off while we are counting on the private sector to build more.”
EGi News 01/10/02
