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Right To Buy Back - Labour councils back purchases from landlords

Labour councils in London have backed the initiative from Mayor Sadiq Khan to buy back ex-council houses now in the private rental sector. 

Since 1980 more than 300,000 London council homes have been sold. While the number of Right to Buy sales has been declining in recent years, Khan claims the policy continues to have a negative impact on the overall number of council homes in London. 

Therefore he plans to buy some back from small landlords exiting the sector because of tougher tax and legal restrictions.

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Labour councils in the capital have backed the move.

Georgia Gould, leader of Camden council, says: “We are proud to be challenging a national failed approach to tackling homelessness by buying back homes that we have been forced to sell off through years of damaging right to buy policy, and using them to house homeless families in need of temporary accommodation in our borough.

“Since July 2019, Camden has repurchased 61 former council properties and we plan to purchase a further 80 through £35M of additional investment into our Temporary Accommodation Purchase Programme. 

“This is vital investment that is helping to deliver more high quality, temporary accommodation for those who need it most. It is also helping our vulnerable families to stay within the borough, with their communities, close to their schools and networks, as we support them to move into long term settled accommodation.

“Camden, like much of London, has found itself at the sharp end of the housing affordability crisis and, as we rebuild from the devastating impact of Covid-19, there has been no greater time for change. We welcome the Mayor’s announcement and look forward to working with the Mayor as other boroughs join Camden in reclaiming decades of lost social housing for Londoners.”

 

Damien Egan, Mayor of Lewisham, adds: “The Mayor’s plan will enable us to reclaim urgently needed housing that was originally and rightfully intended for public ownership.

“London is facing a housing crisis, and alongside our Building for Lewisham housebuilding programme, the Right to Buy-back scheme will be important in helping us move more Lewisham residents off the housing waiting list and into secure social homes.”

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    If the landlord wants to sell and the council offers the market value then where's the problem, other than in my experience councils, and in particular loony left councils, are a nightmare to try and deal with .

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    Buying back houses for a fair price may seem very worthy but is it actually housing any more people or just shifting the balance of who gets housed?

  • George Dawes

    Andrew , the Tory ones aren’t much better . 😂

  • George Dawes

    Especially the planning departments … no comment

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    • S S
    • 15 July 2021 13:33 PM

    What a farce. Sell the homes cheap to tenants subsidised by the taxpayer, then buy at full market price subsidised by the taxpayer.
    Makes complete sense!!

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    They want to buy back in order to provide temporary accommodation before moving those tenants into 'more settled accomodation'? Where is the 'more settled accomodation' going to be found if, as said, they want to keep tenants in the same area for stability.

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