Government extends Right to Buy scheme

In a speech in Lancashire, Boris Johnson restated his “commitment” to help people get on the housing ladder. But the Labour party believes he’s not thought the proposals through and they would make the housing crisis worse. 

It comes during a week when the prime minister won a confidence vote from Conservative MPs by 211 votes to 148. 

Johnson confirmed the government’s ambition to “unlock the opportunity of home ownership” for millions "more people across the country" by helping those in a position to buy, access the mortgage finance they need - as well as ensure people are incentivised to save for a deposit and improve the supply of housing across the country. 

He also said the government will "continue to use" its "fiscal firepower" to help the country through tough times, concentrating its help on those who need it most.

The government want to give millions of people the chance to buy their properties at discounts of up to 70% of market price, depending on how long they’ve lived there.  

Housing secretary Michael Gove said the Right to Buy policy, which will include housing associations, will be capped but was unable to say what the cap will be. 

He’s also said to have secured an agreement that every housing association home that is sold will be replaced by another to ensure the stock of social housing is not run down. 

Responding to the government’s plans, shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said, by the government’s own figures, only a few thousand families would benefit a year from the plan. She also explained, that when the right to buy plan was piloted, “only around half the landlords" were planning to replace those homes. 

Alongside this, she said the government should be focused on increasing the supply of affordable housing and believed that, although in principle helping housing benefit claimants buy a home was a good idea, she didn’t believe the government had thought through the detail.

Charities, think tanks and housing experts have also been critical of its plan to extend the scheme to housing association tenants, with Shelter chief executive Polly Neate saying Johnson’s housing plans are "baffling, unworkable and a dangerous gimmick". 

Ian Mulheirn, the chief economist at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, meanwhile said the move "might appeal to Tory nostalgists", but it’s a "bad idea in principle and an even worse one in practice". He added: "If it works it risks further eroding the much-needed social housing stock."