Right to buy

[Forestgate]

What a ridiculous foolhardy scheme

Just what we don't need !

YABU - Great idea

YANBU - terrible idea.

A social housing build scheme would be a better idea.
Wonder why they won't do that.

If I was PM I would introduc a scheme that requires banks to waive deposit requirements and provide 100% mortgages in areas where rent costs makes it unaffordable to save- all the renter applying for a mortgage would need to show is proof of long term renting affordability (I.e for five years the renter has paid £1800pcm in rent to their landlord on time).

This measure would immediately solve a significant proportion of the housing crisis in the South East where many renters can’t afford to save a deposit for a mortgage because their rent alone can easily absorb 50-75% of their household income, while the deposit required is huge given the house prices at the moment.

This assumes banks will lend to those on low incomes who have social housing, and that they can raise a deposit.

It does not build one more house.

A better option would be to restrict holiday lets and perhaps in some places to have local market housing (Guernsey has a scheme, essentially homes akin to the lower council tax bands reserved for locals and certain employment).

the UK needs more houses. councils need to build more houses (and need access to funding to do so), developers need to build more houses (and big apartments that people actually want to live in), it should be easier to renovate & re-purpose other buildings. everything else is just tweaking the edges of a massive shortage of properties.

Another hit for the tax payer.

How about helping the WORKING lower income families who are struggling to pay their mortgages at the moment.

It's just inflammatory designed to divide again.
There is still RTB and right to acquire in England for many but they will never be able to use it. It's still capped at max £85000 for RTB in most of England RTA is much less (£17000 iirc) and most importantly they still don't use the money from RTB/RTA to buy or build.
But that won't stop the screaming about scroungers getting tax payers help.
Hard working of course.

Yes exactly. This scheme will do nothing more than at fuel to the fire of housing crisis while further squeezing those renters struggling to save.

And meanwhile massively disincentiving people to get off benefits.

It's mental.

Gove saying this morning he was looking at reducing mortgage regs brought in after 2007 - madness really. We need a large stock of affordable housing and reducing inequality. The key problem is very wealthy minority owning vast amounts of property that is increasing in value beyond average earnings year on year. Rising inequality and house building is the problem, the solution is not transferring more housing into private ownership and increasing amount people can borrow.

I think they make these policies up when pissed during wine o'clock. It is such a flawed idea. It even manages to piss off the Daily Mail readers who are now ranting that benefit scroungers will get free houses!

Of course he's doing that, he knows he is losing popularity. Needs to confuse the public into forgetting what a twat he is, and it will work.

It's a shit idea but it will still happen and make the current situation worse, like it did last time. Great plan.

What it's designed for @anniegun getting people who are clueless raging at each other while they continue to cream off to better themselves.
Look at that poorer person stealing your taxes!

Conservatives (and arguably the British in general) are obsessed with home ownership, as though it is the only way to succeed in life. It would be far more beneficial to find a way to encourage a stable and long term tenancy model so people don't have to own a house to feel secure. Whether this is greater rights for tenants in the private market or increased social housing. Or both.
The last thing we should do is decrease social housing stock even further. Not every one can, or should, or wants to own a home with a mortgage. Even if the can use their benefits towards paying it.

Terrible idea.

We need to get far more creative with housing options in this country, and RTB sounds like just more of the same. You'll have people buying what are essentially public assets for discounted prices only to sell at large profits, and "create" hundreds of thousands of pounds to outbid other buyers who have not been so lucky and would literally give their left arms for a council house.

Council houses are essentially a lottery anyway, and RTB is a lottery scheme for people who have already bloody won!!

What I mean by more creative is things like "Tiny Houses" for example. I'd have lived in one in a HEARTBEAT when I was a single mother to a young DD to have the opportunity to save. I've tried to look into this, I have about £40k, maybe I could buy some land? Everything I've read says it'll be likely impossible to get planning permission. (Not to mention the cost of land has gone up 90% - 300% in the last year because of another government scheme - the "rewilding" thing which is essentially a GIANT BACKHANDER for rich people).

Park homes not just for retirees. Why isn't this more of a thing? I live in a tiny poky flat that's hard to heat - at least if I was in a park home I'd have a garden and a sense of community! And I wouldn't be paying eye watering amounts for the pleasure.

Communities built around different demographics - they do this really well in Canada. I spent a summer with my grandparents siblings and they lived in an "Over 50s Village" where the homes were all built around a communal pool, woodworking shop, and rec room for stuff like bingo or movie nights. They were not rich either, a housewife and a baker in a supermarket. Their single mother daughter lived in a complex where you had to be a parent and when I visited you could literally FEEL the sense of community in the air. The other siblings were living in a development of multi-generation homes, so the 60-something couple lived in the basement type apartment with no stairs and direct access to part of the garden while their adult daughter and spouse + two grandchildren lived upstairs in a nice 3 bedroom home. It sounded ideal as they could literally come upstairs for datenight childcare and the younger couple could come downstairs to help them with cleaning the skirtings etc. Both families seemed really happy.

What do we have in this country? The area I grew up in where my whole family lives had the gift of "regeneration" bequeathed on them. Gentrified. So now if you want to start a family near your support network you basically have to hope you win the council house lottery (which they're trying to make harder) or you pull off buying a 2 bedroom shoebox that is TEN times the salary of a nurse of police officer etc.

We need an entirely new strategy IMO, not more of the same sticking plasters that are the equivalent of removing a splinter from one persons eye only to stick a plank in someone else's. Right to Buy, Help to Buy, Shared Equity, Shared Ownership etc are all forms of this. If homebuilders think they can get £150k for a house, but the government is handing people £30k, they don't charge £120k. They charge £180k. It's so fucking obvious they and the gov must think we are buttoned up the back.

Or too downtrodden to rise up and demand better.

My first thought that here is another idea that assumes that those on a low income will be receiving benefits. We all know that there are low income people who aren't entitled to any benefits because their income is low, but not low enough. We have posters here from time to time explaining why they are better off on benefits than working. I'm not criticising anyone, I just think this needs to be recognised by government when they consider support of any kind.
It's the same with the ULEZ consultation, talk of assistance for those on low incomes - in receipt of benefits.

I just want to clarify I have nothing against people lucky enough to get a CH or people who use RTB (or any of the other home ownership schemes that ultimately inflate the property market). They're just doing what most people would do.

It's governments and homebuilders primarily at fault.

This was floated by David Cameron years ago and the banks wouldn't get on board (rightly so imo) the number of people this would actually make a difference to is tiny.
Its just shit stirring and distraction.
We need affordable rentals with tenancies that don't leave people at constant risk.
Most other European countries manage but you only need to count the landlords in the Tory party to understand why we won't do anything.

I hated RTB when Thatcher implemented it, I can't say that now because the social mobility it provides speaks for itself.
What they never tell you is the money raised by it doesn't go to buy or build replacement homes.
that'd be an easy start.

Completely unfair. Tenants who already have heavily subsidised and secure housing offered a huge discount to buy the homes they live in. Meanwhile, private renters pay much higher rent, have insecure housing get no help. The Tories are sending out a very clear message - don't bother making an effort as we will punish you and tax you more and we will use the tax you pay to give to people in secure, subsidised housing to purchase a property cheaply. Everyone should just give up work, claim benefits and get a free house.

The big change that is needed is with mortgage lenders. If someone has been paying a £1,300 rent for 2-3 years with a good credit history then they should be able to get a mortgage where the repayments are £1,200

What about Universal Right To Buy 😂!!

So if you private rent you have a minimum 5 year tenancy (which only you can end early) and then after if the landlord tries to evict you, you get an automatic discount and a right to buy?

Something tells me our government pull of part-time property investors would not be keen AT ALL on their assets being sold off at discounted rates...

That kind of thing is only okay when it's our assets, of course.

Selling off affordable housing (ie council houses) is exactly how we got into this situation of there being no affordable housing in the first place. I can't believe anyone is seriously proposing selling off the remaining affordable housing and thinking this is going to solve anything. Bonkers.

Why would anyone then become a land lord in the first place? Why would you invest in an asset only to have it forcefully removed years later. What you would then see is a decrease in private rental stock (so more competition of what there is) and higher rents (to maximise profit before losing the assest) = both bad for the tenant.

Of course private rental stock is not the same as social at all. RTB is of course subsidised by the government for social purposes.

Its the working families in private rents that need help.
We both work full time and earn £50k per year between us but can't save for a 10% deposit because of the rent and bills that we are paying. This scheme does nothing for us because we don't qualify for a council house.
We're at the mercy of our landlord while at least council tenants have a secure lifetime tenancy.
Boris is just picking an easy way to try and look like he's helping the working class without actually putting in any effort to help renters.

100% mortgages? That worked well last time didnt it?

@adlitem you're totally correct of course, which is why I can't understand why anyone supports it for publicly owned assets?!

Why would anyone (including councils) invest in assets knowing they'll be forced to sell them at discounted prices in future.