Response: Right to Buy consultation
By: Nicola Hughes Published: February 2012
There is huge demand for social housing across England. With over 1.8 million households on council waiting lists, homelessness acceptances rising and insufficient numbers of new homes being built, the government must consider how to achieve value for money from housing and find ways to leverage more funding into new supply. The government has also expressed the view that social housing is a 'precious resource' that councils must make the best use of.
- Response: Right to Buy consultation (PDF 75.0 KB)
Summary
Shelter is not convinced that the proposals outlined in this consultation document will deliver significant numbers of new, genuinely affordable homes. While we welcome the general commitment to 'one-for-one' replacement of homes sold through Right to Buy, it is not clear that this can be achieved under the proposed framework, nor that the homes will be replaced 'like-for-like'. If homes are not replaced like-for- like, this policy will do more harm than good, stripping away much needed public assets. The government's own impact assessment, and external analysis
, suggest that the commitment to replacement is ambiguous, and even misleading.