John Healey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Healey on 2016-01-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will publish the findings of his Department’s right to buy pilots; what recent estimate he has made of the total cost of providing discounts to tenants eligible for that scheme nationwide and the number of council homes which will need to be sold in the course of that scheme; and what recent assessment he has made of the ability of housing associations to provide a like-for-like replacement for homes sold in the area local to those homes.
Brandon Lewis
As set out in the voluntary agreement with the National Housing Federation, tenants of housing associations will be eligible for the equivalent discounts that are available under the Right to Buy (up to £77,900 and £103,900 within London). The Government has been clear that the sale of high value vacant council housing will pay for the cost of compensating housing associations for the discount, so the Right to Buy will be cost neutral. Ahead of full implementation, we have launched the Right to Buy pilot with 5 housing associations.
Overall there will be an ongoing evaluation of the Right to Buy pilot with the pilot informing the design of the full scheme.
We are engaging with local authorities and are in the process of updating data that will be used to help inform the high value threshold. Every home sold under the voluntary Right to Buy will result in a new additional home being built nationally.
