Mumsnet Talk

Maybe I'm missing something, but if we have a social housing crisis wouldn't it make sense to repeal the Right To Buy Act and stop selling off housing stock at less than market value?

No what would make more sense is using funds obtained from selling to build more

Mine's ex council (not my RTB) and I'd sell it back to them... but we wouldn't get market rate which would be a pickle.

Bit late, I think. Thanks Maggie (& successive governments). .

But yes we should be building more social housing. No brainer.

Agree with sock.

It won't solve things, but it would help.

RTB wouldn't we a problem if the proceeds were invested in building more social housing.

In theory RTB is a great idea, as it gives people pride about were they live and builds communities. In practice there has been no reinvestment, leading to a housing shortage.

But we just end up constantly building with potentially all houses built eventually ending up in private ownership.

Harriet the constant building is because the population of this country is expanding, and is happening a lot in the private sector too!

Should never have been introduced on the first place, ridiculous idea!

What we need is decent sized family housing. 3 beds and 2 beds and bungalows for the elderly. If we have bungalows available it might free up homes for families.
My local Ha bought up some land and built flats! What is the bloody point in that? Now they're filled with families waiting for decent homes.
This shared ownership lark is a pile of crap too.

Councils don't want to build council houses anymore. That's the problem.

I don't think they are allowed to.

Maybe we should introduce rent control, so landlords can't make huge amounts of money and people can afford to save up for a deposit.

Perhaps they should compulsory purchase 2nd+ houses, particularly in places like Cornwall, where locals are priced out of the market so that other folk can take a holiday there for a fortnight a year and leaves houses that are empty the rest of the year.

That way locals could afford to live there and holidaymakers would have to use local hotels/B&Bs thus supporting the local economy.

We need-
End to RTB
more decent council housing stock
Letting agents to be regulated and fees to tenants made illegal
Long letting contracts to be offered (2-5 years)
Private rent to be capped (possibly, could be hard to implement and the two above might make it unnecessary)
0% loans from the government to assist people with low deposits to buy property

Are we going to get any of this from grant 'dickhead' shapps? No we are not.

Agree with the building more bungalows. My parents would love a bungalow, my DM has arthritis in her knees, shoulders and hips. Some days she had a choice between staying near the loo or the kitchen. She has swapped houses with my DBro so they have a downstairs toilet and at least she can have a warm drink and go for a wee. A bungalow would be ideal, it would free up a 2 bed family house with a lovely garden for someone who needs it too.

But, not all landlords make huge profits, we have a flat which we couldn't sell so rent it out and it barely covers the mortgage, never mind the agency fees (we live too far away to be decent landlords) or management fee. There are a lot of people in the same boat too.

RTB is suspended in some areas.

Yes RTB should be stopped. It only would have worked if the Councils built more houses. A mix of HA and affordable(that really are affordable) is what we need along with more regulations for the private renting sector.
Folkgirl you are absolutely right my dh talks about that all the time. Second homes are just wrong imo.

"Councils don't want to build council houses anymore. That's the problem.
I don't think they are allowed to."

Yes, they are allowed, and some Councils are doing so. It is all really whether they want to now, so it's a local not central Government issue.

Incidentally, the ban on building more was never as absolute as usually reported. Councils had to use the money raised firstly to pay off long-term Council debt. After that it could be used for any purpose which the Council wanted. So those Councils which are not building are either still in debt, or have prioritised other areas of spending.

ErikNorseman great post, agree 100%.

They've built quite a few in recent years in Birmingham so I think they are allowed to build them. They've also built some really good sheltered schemes for the elderly which I understand have proved very popular.

I forget the exact figures but I think until recently when a house was bought under RTB 75% of the capital receipt would go back to the government to pay the original debt which did not exactly leave local authorities a lot to build new properties

My big problem with RTB is that once the house is sold its lost to the social housing market forever and they are generally sold on at quite large profits. Also it tends to be the better houses that go and local authorities are left with teh poorer quality houses and flats. I'd repeal it tomororow if it was up to me but its not

The way to solve the problem would be to

Stop RTB
For councils to build houses
Not have so many empty houses
Have a house tax for people with over 3 houses

It favoured those who were in the properties at the time of the sales (incidentally, it was legal before the 1985 Act to sell council houses in this way and it did begin in mid-1970s so repeal of the act won't make it illegal as it just facilitated an already popular policy).

Those people (ie those who pocketed the difference between the discount rate and the private sale rate) will tend to be members of the post-war baby boomer generation. I doubt any of them deliberately thought about the effects of asset stripping on future generations, but it is another example of how they benefited at the expense of those who came after.

RTB wouldn't be a problem if people were charged market rate for them and the money was used to build more houses and increase the infrastructure to cope with the new homes.

Agree 100% Erik, plus huge taxes on BTL and second+ properties.