Extension of Right to Buy will force council home sell-off, warns housing chief

Flats on Colville Estate, currently under regeneration, could be eligible for compulsory sale. Photograph: Hackney Council

The government’s “terrible” proposals to extend the Right to Buy scheme will result in a mass sell-off of social housing, the council’s housing chief has warned.

Under the Conservative government’s new proposals, around 1.3 million housing association tenants would be handed the chance to “make their dreams a reality” and buy their own home.

In order to fund the policy the government has said local authorities will have to sell council properties worth over certain thresholds on the open market.

In boroughs such as Hackney where house prices are high the council fears the proposals would mean swathes of its social housing stock would become eligible for compulsory sale.

At a London Assembly Housing Committee meeting, Hackney’s housing chief Councillor Philip Glanville said the proposed extension had “dropped a bomb right in the middle of our plans”.

Under the proposals, a newly-built one bed home would have to be sold off if it was worth above £340,000, well below the average asking price of £426,920 for a 1 bed property in Hackney.

Cllr Glanville suggested that high house prices in the area – would mean “all of the 900 homes” currently under construction around Hackney – including developments of the Nightingale Estate and Colville Estate – could be worth over the threshold for compulsory sale.

He told the Hackney Citizen: “We’ve got a housing waiting list of eleven thousand. We’ve got 2,100 people in temporary accommodation, and a lot of those are families.

“If a three or four bed house becomes available today, it is available for someone on the waiting list or in housing need. After these changes, that property will have to be sold, and those people stay on the waiting list.”

Executive Member for Housing & Development at Islington Council, Cllr James Murray said the policy threatened to end its new build programme as “every single home we are building is above the threshold”.

Sell-off

At the committee meeting Cllr Glanville suggested the analysis of how the policy would impact Hackney “is likely to echo” a report commissioned by Islington, Haringey, Camden and Enfield.

The report predicts that in these four boroughs 3,500 council homes would be sold off in the first five years of this policy in contrast to 745 homes have been sold under Right to Buy in the same boroughs since 2010. Since 2010 119 homes have been sold in Hackney under the scheme.

After the meeting, Chair of the Housing Committee Tom Copley said: “As the government develops its plans it must ensure it does not penalise councils and housing associations: they are vital in boosting London’s housing supply – especially affordable homes.”

Councillor Glanville, Cabinet Member for Hackney Homes and Regeneration Estates. Photograph: Hackney Council

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis has defended the policy, calling on housing associations to become to “champions of aspiration”. He said: “We want to help anyone who works hard and aspires to own their own home to turn their dream into a reality.

“The Right to Buy supports those dreams – it’s why we want to give housing association tenants the same home ownership opportunities as council tenants.

The meeting coincided with the release of a report by Hackney Council’s Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission, which claimed that Hackney residents see “provision of affordable decent housing” as the “aspect of community life most in need of improvement”.