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Cameron’s ‘right’ to cause homelessness
‘New’ right to buy scheme will cause misery for millions
Jody Whitehill,
Tuesday, April 14th, 2015
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The right to buy is back – but this time the Tories have set their sights on housing associations.
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Stung by allegations that the Conservative’s message to the electorate is too negative, David Cameron launched his party’s manifesto today (April 14) by announcing plans to extend the sell-off scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s - only he forgot to mention that this policy stripped the country and councils of precious housing stock and contributed to the chronic housing need evident today.
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The re-booted housing steal will force councils to sell their most valuable 210,000 properties from their remaining housing stock – but as yet it is unclear how the government could compel housing associations to part with their homes.
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An estimated £20bn in taxpayers’ money would be needed to fund the giveaway to up to 1.3m people already in secure housing. But the policy has been met by furious criticism by housing charities fearful that it will only make the nation’s already shocking housing problems far worse.
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Highlighting the problems at the heart of the policy, Ruth Davison, National Housing Federation’s director of policy said, “Housing associations are independent organisations and charities and you can no more force them to sell their assets at less than they’re worth then you could force a company like Tesco.” She further pointed out that “housing associations would have to be fully recompensed for any sale.”
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Ruth asked, “In the middle of austerity and in the grips of a housing crisis, if you had £20bn of taxpayers’ money would you just give it away as a gift to some of the most securely housed people in the country on some of the lowest rents?
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“If those figures are right you could build almost one billion shared ownership houses or some social housing and give everybody a chance to get a foot on the property ladder,” she added.
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No guarantees
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While 26,000 housing association homes have been sold since 2012, just 2,700 have been built to replace them.
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The right to buy scheme does not guarantee you a secure home over your head either as residents on the West Hendon estate in Barnet have experienced first-hand.
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Many residents had bought their properties through the right to buy scheme to then be told years later that the estate was being bulldozed to make way for luxury accommodation.
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Families were offered a fraction of the market value of their properties leaving them unable to buy another property in the area.
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“We’re giving up a complete property to now not even be able to afford to own half a property,” said one resident.
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Unite has been actively fighting to defend affordable and council homes in London including opposing the social cleansing of the West Hendon estate, raising the plight of residents facing eviction from the New Era estate in Hoxton and Sweets Way in Barnet and backing the E15 campaigners in Newham.
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“All we have to do to see the sheer stupidity of this policy is to look at what has happened to thousands of decent council homes in London,” said Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner.
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“Sold off, they now sit in the portfolios of millionaire absentee landlords while people like the residents in Sweets Way fight to put a roof over the heads of their kids. Once again the Tories remind us exactly whose side they are on and it is not the people’s,” he added.
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Right for rich to get richer
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A Daily Mirror investigation found a third of ex-council homes sold under Margaret Thatcher were now owned by private landlords.
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In one London borough almost half of ex-council properties are now sub-let to tenants.
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Tycoon Charles Gow – whose father Ian Gow was one of Mrs Thatcher’s top aides and was Housing Minister during the peak years of right to buy – and his wife, own at least 40 ex-council flats on one South London estate.
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“This Tory housing policy is illiterate,” said Steve Turner.
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“How can a government compel housing associations to sell assets which are not state properties? And how does selling more affordable housing association homes do anything to help the 9m in the private rented sector or the millions more who do not even have a home?”
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Sally Kosky, Unite national officer representing housing association workers added, “This isn’t the time to bestow â€gifts’ on those already in secure housing. Ordinary people are being forced out of their communities by high prices and speculation. We need public sector investment in new council house building on a massive scale and security of tenure for all those living in rented accommodation.”
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