{"id":4314,"date":"2015-05-29T15:43:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T14:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4314"},"modified":"2015-05-29T15:43:21","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T14:43:21","slug":"height-of-insanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4314","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHeight of insanity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 latest right-to-buy housing scheme will spell disaster for London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already beleaguered housing market.<\/p>\n

 
\nA key part of the Conservative manifesto, extending right-to-buy to housing association tenants was confirmed in the Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech on Wednesday (May 27).<\/p>\n

 
\nBut a new report commissioned by four London councils published yesterday<\/a> (May 28) suggests that hardly anyone living in one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most expensive cities\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhere rent prices have skyrocketed by more than 8 per cent in the last year alone\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwill stand to benefit from the latest scheme, and most will, in fact, be worse off.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnder pressure<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nExtending right-to-buy to housing association tenants will, the Tory plan goes, be funded by local government authorities being forced to sell off their high-value council homes.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut this decimation of council housing stock, the analysis by Liverpool Economics found, will in turn put the private rental market under greater pressure, leading to even further increases in rents.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs it stands already, London rents have reached absurd levels, as this recent list of outrageously priced tiny flats in the city reveals. <\/a><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe report underlines that there would be a big question mark over the Government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise that the homes would be replaced,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Islington Council executive member for housing James Murray.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe’ll see a fall in the number of council lettings, which in turn will push up private rents even further, particularly in outer London boroughs.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis report seems to confirm what we feared \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that the Government’s policy is wrong for London, both socially and economically, and will make our grave housing crisis even worse,” he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nWaiting<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nCouncil housing waiting lists are notoriously long in London \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at the end of last year, more than a quarter of a million people languished on these lists. <\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nBut if the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 new right-to-buy scheme goes through, the number of people having to wait for a council home will skyrocket even more, and hit the most vulnerable the hardest.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn the four councils analysed in the report\u00e2\u20ac\u201dHaringey, Enfield, Islington and Camden\u00e2\u20ac\u201dalmost 400 homeless households would not be able to access council housing in the first two years of the right-to-buy scheme. A further 579 families with children will be unable to get a council home in the four boroughs, and an additional 615 families with general needs will likewise be affected.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is therefore a strong likelihood of an increase in the requirement for temporary accommodation,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the report noted.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs UniteLive reported last year<\/a>, living in temporary accommodation can have devastating effects, especially on children, many of whom have reported panic attacks, depression and self-harm as a direct result of living in insecure housing.<\/p>\n

 
\nMost of these families living in temporary accommodation live together in one room and must share a bathroom and a kitchen with strangers, a survey found. Some were even forced to eat off the floor because living space was so cramped.<\/p>\n

 
\nEven Tory London mayor Boris Johnson recently called Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest right-to-buy extension plans \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe height of insanity\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nInsane may be the most precise word to describe many of the unintended consequences of the scheme that the report highlighted.<\/p>\n

 
\nAmong the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnumber of complications\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 arising from extending right-to-buy to housing association tenants is the process of building replacement homes from sold off council housing stock.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just that the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 record under their previous Right to Buy scheme has been notoriously poor. The report notes that even if the government did make good on its promise to rebuild a home for every home sold off, there would be a two-year lag, since replacement homes would take time to build.<\/p>\n

 
\nProperty sales are expected to fund the entire scheme in theory \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they will purportedly pay for compensating housing associations for the loss of their assets, go towards rebuilding homes and will also be poured into a brownfield fund to aid in building additional housing on previously used land.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe report however, contends that property sales alone will come nowhere near to covering all these costs. For local authorities to rebuild homes, they would likely have to borrow substantially.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, many of the replacement homes would have to be built outside their respective boroughs, meaning that, as the report notes, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthere is also likely to be a reduction in the flow of new vacancies in council homes as people remain in overcrowded or under-occupied accommodation rather than disrupt their support network.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nCouncils will therefore have to buy land in other boroughs to let to their own tenants, or they would have to transfer funds to other authorities or housing associations.<\/p>\n

 
\nBig mess<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe big mess that is the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 new housing policy prompted Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner to call the scheme \u00e2\u20ac\u015billiterate\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow can a government compel housing associations to sell assets which are not state properties? Turner noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd 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?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite national officer Sally Kosky, who represents housing workers, argued that the root of the problem to the housing crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the answer that would remedy it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was clear.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOrdinary people are being forced out of their communities by high prices and speculation,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need public sector investment in new council house building on a massive scale and security of tenure for all those living in rented accommodation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 latest right-to-buy housing scheme will spell disaster for London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already beleaguered housing market.   A key part of the Conservative manifesto, extending right-to-buy to housing association tenants was confirmed in the Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech on Wednesday (May 27).   But a new report commissioned by four London councils published yesterday (May 28) suggests that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[131,175,44],"wps_subtitle":"Even Tory Boris doubts right-to-buy ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4315,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4314\/revisions\/4315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}