AIBU to think right to buy scheme should be scrapped?

[MumOfTheNorth]

There was a debate on LBC today about the shortage of social housing and the presenter said no party would support scrapping the right to buy scheme as it is too popular.

To me it seems mad to be selling off social housing at a discount, further depleting our national stock of social housing, despite thousands of people being on waiting lists.

I get it is a massive boost for the person you sell it to but in the long run wouldn't keeping it help more families in need?

I hope this isn't massively controversial - genuinely interested in if there is huge support for this scheme and if so why?

Yes but receiving money back instead of paying rent.

With mine I have to offer it back if selling within 5 years and they don't have to buy it back but I've no intention of doing so in that timeframe. I don't know what I'll be doing with it yet. It's a beautiful area. Small cul de sc. I agree that lots of the tenants wouldn't be moving and needing rehoused anyway. Of course everyone dies that's life. I wonder how many of you complaining own your home or is it just rtb families you have a problem with.

My problem isn’t with people who availed themselves of RTB, it’s with the entire concept and the way it’s messed up the housing market. I don’t know why you think people who bought on the open market without a subsidy shouldn’t have a view @paulaparticles.

Fair enough. But it is what it is. I've a family member in a 3 bed HA house on their own after their parent passed away. Wanting to downsize for a few years now.
Before anyone jumps on and says they only need a one bed they have a health condition that requires someone to stay with them which has been proven and accepted so has been on the list for a 2 bed and been unsuccessful so far.
Even though there are lots of 2 beds in our area all new and have just been given out and they have missed out.
A 3 bed which could easily house a family of 6 and we wait still. I thought in this situation it would be straightforward but obviously not.

Honestly RTB was stupid and one reason I will never vote for Tories, if a party pledge to stop that I would vote for them.

Yes, it's subsidised for a reason so to profit from that seems askew. Others pay for the subsidy through tax presumably. I wish the scheme had never started. It's caused misery for many as good quality housing stock was sold off and not replaced. Where I live the ex council stock is so extremely desirable as part of the first cohort of buildings and they are gorgeous, probably 200k more expensive than the new private builds.

It’s the same where I live. Huge plots with mature trees. They’re snapped up the moment they’re put on the market.

It's permanently finished in Northern Ireland for HA. HE tenants can still buy but that too will be stopping at some stage. I accept your points but it was the only way for us to get on the ladder and I know how lucky I am and im very grateful for the opportunity. Now im not stuck paying rent forever and even mentally that has benefited me.

It is too late. It has been in place about 40 years and all those houses and flats will never be replaced, some are now privately rented.
One of Thatcher's many ill thought out legacies.

That's discount on the value on the open market, not the actual building or land cost. Councils own a lot of land, they often sell it to developers they should build on it themselves. Do they also have the option of compulsory purchase...? There is also a lot of building going on on low value green belt land, why can't the council build rather than private for profit companies?

You're also forgetting that you have to have rented a council house for at least 3 years to earn the right to buy, with social housing now costing as much or sometimes more than private rents, they also have that income to cover building costs.

Yes I would ban it.

However - I would also buy my house if I lived in a council house and could benefit from it. Who wouldn’t?

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Fuck buying my council house. My “mortgage” would be double my rent even with the discount. I would also have to pay for repairs. Makes no sense to my quality of life at all.

I'm a HA tenant and I'd ban it. The only people I know who used right to buy sold as soon as they could to local landlords.

It's the lifetime tenancy that screws things up for current families. So many people in 3 bed houses when their kids have long left home, but there's no 1 beds available, or if there were they wouldn't want to downsize anyway. Meanwhile families with young children can't get into 3 bed housing so are stuck overcrowded. It's not a case of building more, you could be just building forever, it needs a bloody good reshuffle.

Building more would make a massive difference. Just replacing all the stock that’s been sold off. Why should social housing tenants be forced to downsize as if they’re in some way inferior?

My parents live in a 3 bed social housing property, they’ve both recently retired and have always paid their own rent. They have an office,
a craft room as well as their bedroom. Why should they be expected to move for someone who’s chosen to have more children that they can house?

To make way for people who need those extra bedrooms that are currently sitting empty because their kids have grown up and left home. It's just logic, nothing to do with being inferior.

So how did your parents end up in a 3 bed?

Should never have been allowed in the first place.

mil bought her 3 bed house for 27k and sold for 140k
sil bought her 3 bed house for 24k and sold it for 98k

its bloody ridiculous that council houses were allowed to be sold when there are so many people desperate for social housing which is in dire straits.

Sheffield City Council have got loads of land that used to have schools on it before they were demolished, that would be perfect for housing & have planning permission included. Some sites have been up for sale for over 10 years, if they were given the money to build, xthey could build at least 3000 homes.

There’s no way I would downsize into a shitty 1 bed flat with no garden. I lived in a flat for 10 years overcrowded. Did my time. This is why they introduced the bedroom tax but I don’t pay that anyway because I pay full rent so it’s not applicable to me.

Excellent. I'm assuming you'll be happy to give up your council property as soon as you have a spare bedroom?

That's the spirit.

Their house was repossessed during the 90’s recession and we spend 3 years in temporary housing.

I don't have a council house 🤷🏼‍♀️ Nor a spare bedroom

So they got a 3 bed to meet the needs of the family at the time then, as should other families. Nothing to do with "people having more kids then they can house". Perhaps they were like your parents, could afford/house them when they had them but life circumstances changed and they found themselves needing a 3 bed council house.