To ask if someone can explain the Housing Assoc RTB agreement to me?

[AccidentalNameChange]

Someone was telling me yesterday that an agreement has been brokered between the gov't and the major HAs.

Does anyone understand what has happened?

Wrong time of day for Housing Policy nerds, eh?

Is this what you mean?

gu.com/p/4cybb?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

Everyone's busy discussing RTB on another thread...

This has been in the pipeline for a while I think , I live in a HA house , in recent months a surveyor from a local estate agents came round to check that repairs had been done , which I found odd as the HA has its own repair and surveyor team . We have received an email asking if the opportunity arose would we consider buying , but worded so that no offer of buying has been made .

Yes that's it Lili. Thanks . I just checked the The Guardian, I must have scrolled right past that. Yes the RTB thread is what made me remember what my friend said yesterday/Thursday.

Yes frumpet, it's been up in the air. But this deal would not exactly be RTB. You think your LL is quite keen though? Interesting.

As I understand it, HAs in England (not Britain, because housing is devolved) have agreed to voluntarily offer RTB rather than risk recategorisation as public sector bodies, because that would put govt in charge of their ability to borrow and so totally stuff their businesses.

Lots of people in the sector think they (the NHF) should have put up a fight rather than offering a compromise. I'm not sure when the deadline for agreement is?

Watching with interest

From the Guardian article;

Associations would have the discretion to block sales of homes where there were shortages of social housing, such as in rural areas, although those tenants would be given a cash voucher to put towards buying an association property elsewhere.

So that's new and has the potential to cause issues in rural areas.

But essentially there would be no scope for whole HAs to opt out?

I bet Peabody (amongst others) are unhappy.

Actually - what am I saying - areas 'where there are shortages of social housing' could be most of South East England for a start. This could get very interesting indeed.

The arguments for the agreement, from David Orr, NHF Chief exec

TY

To be honest I am not sure if they are keen or not , the houses we live in are coming to the point where they are going to need more maintenance/repair due to their age and I don't think the HA is doing so well financially , so maybe they are considering it before repairs become an issue , as I said the estate agent man made me wonder , I think he was actually valuing the property .