Labour’s Rayner defends buying her council house at a discount

When I divorced, I had to start all over again, having had a weasel for a husband (obviously I bear no grudges! 😜) who ended up with everything because of procedures which were legal, yet morally corrupt! I was very naive at the time, had to learn very quickly.
I bought my place, after going back to Uni, skilling up, whilst working and bringing up three kids on my own.
Off the back of that, and using it as security, I started my portfolio, because there was no pension coming my way! I don't regret it at all, yes I needed to upgrade and maintain it, buy it, and with damned hard work, it sllowed me a future and progression, for which I'll be eternally grateful.
It's not the people who take advantage of the scheme to blame here, for every house sold, a new one, insulated and up-to-date, should be built, to offer quality homes!
Yes, I'm still living in mine and maintaining it...and working

I sort of agree with you Jo, the real issue for me is she did not sell it until after the five year period despite living somewhere else. To be fair I doubt anyone would, but she is in a position that she should have declared it.

It is hypocritical of her to now preach to anyone on social housing when she literally exploited the system and moved into another council house which also had a discount..!

And she preaches to landlords about S21 when she moved her brother into her house and no doubt charged him rent.

The issue here, Jo, is thousands of council tenants bought their council houses, did no work to them and sold them at a significant profit. Two things are wrong with this: profit without working for it and reducing the number of homes available to rent for people with low incomes. As a rtb surveyor in Westminster, I saw this happen time after time. Profits exceeding £80k for doing absolutely nothing were commonplace.
As for Angela Raynor she wants to deny others the very policy she exploited herself.

Agree. People that earn more eventually like Bob Crow (ex-RMT leader and now dead) and Eddie Dempsey (current RMT union director and still with us) earn over 100k per year and stay in their council house, be proud of it and keep paying low rent and strong security of tenure. They should be kicked out.

When she bought her RTB she was working as a care worker and Union rep. She was a bog standard Council tenant at that point.
She wasn't elected as an MP until 2015, at which point she sold the ex Council house.

Why does that make her hypocrite? She used a scheme that the government had created to make a better life for herself and her family. Maybe she didn't 100% play within the rules, although does anyone who is criticising her actually know what the specifics of those rules were regarding letting your RTB or allowing family members to live in it after purchase?

I'm not a fan of Angela Raynor but aren't people with her sort of background and life experience exactly what we need in politics? Haven't we got far too many over privileged, public school educated blokes who know nothing about how the majority of people live, stuffing up every policy they come up with?
When MPs are elected shouldn't we just accept they may have stuff in their past that might be a little bit grubby? It would certainly bring more balance to politics if they didn't have to hide everything or be persecuted for their former life choices.

@ Jo
The hypocrisy comes from her wanting to stop others enoyng RTB. A bit like the Labour campaign against Grammar schools, not to mention wanting to penalise public schools when they have benefitted from them. THAT is hypocrisy. THAT is the Labour party.

Lots of good points Jo. But on one point - but I don't think we need any more people like Angela Rayner in politics! That really would lead the country to ruin!

Annoyed Landlord

Does she want to totally stop RTB or just address the level of discount? Those discounts have changed at various times over the years. In the late 1980s it was between 30% and 70%. In the early 2000s it was a maximum of £30K.

In the 80s some of those houses were in a dire state.. The discount may or may not have covered the amount of work needed to bring them up to a decent standard. Obviously some people who bought were tradesmen who could do most of the work themselves, so didn't have to pay for labour costs. If the Council hadn't sold them they would have had huge maintenance costs to bring them up to any kind of suitable standard.
Things moved on, Councils did some maintenance work, discounts were lowered for a while.
Right now discounts range from 35% to 70% with a maximum discount of £127900 in London (£96000 outside London). It's right to question why those discounts are quite so high, especially as those tenants who can access those discounts have been paying staggeringly low rent.
I'm a huge fan of the concept of RTB but the numbers have to be right. A combination of half price rent (regardless of income) and a huge RTB discount is insanity. Something like LHA or market rent and a maximum discount of 25% (subject to the condition of the property) would be far more equitable to all parties (especially the tax payer).

Jo, Wait and see. I would not trust a Labour politician, nor would I trust one of the faux-Tories.

Isn't the bigger question why she declared herself on the electoral register as living in the RTB property, whilst her newlywed husband and new born children were declared at a different address. At the same time as local residents say she was not living at the RTB property but rather her brother was resident there (was he paying her rent??).

Sounds like possible electoral register fraud in an effort to avoid repaying the RTB discount, as would be required if she sold the property within 5 years of purchase. If she was really renting it to her brother, then egg will be most defiantly on her face.

She is so self-righteous, blasting hard working LL, suggesting rent caps and other anti LL BS, now we see the true HYPOCRACY of these "let's stick our hands in everyone else's pocket" lefties .

She's a champagne socialist. She would never do that. Always taking from others ( tax payers) as she does now.

Of course the issue is the person, her, Dianne Abacus and Bob Crow all hD council places and she's made money on it and now wants to stop anyone else doing the same.

So declared herself on the electoral register as living in the RTB property, whilst she was really living with her newlywed husband and new born children at a different address. Local residents say she was not living at the RTB property but rather her brother was resident there. The question then becomes was her brother paying her rent at the RTB address??

At a minimum that's electoral register fraud, probably in an effort to avoid repaying the RTB discount, which would be required if she sold the property within 5 years of purchase. If she was really renting it to her brother, the the question is did she declare the income as a LL.

She is so self-righteous, blasting hard working LL, suggesting rent caps and other anti LL BS, now we see the true HYPOCRACY. Politicians on all sides cannot really be trusted can they??

My late parents and my maternal grandparents lived in council houses. My paternal grandmother lived in private rented accommodation. My parents maintained their property themselves rather than run to the council with every little problem, as did my maternal grandparents. My late parents then bought through RTB. My grandparents' estate was split in two by a coombe and the properties the other side we occupied by tenants who wanted everything done for them. This was in the 50's and 60's. It was like two different worlds.

My paternal grandmother had two sons who did internal repair etc but she had a buddleia's roots growing into the kitchen from the property next door. Both properties were owned by the same landlord but because he could not get her out and increase the rent, he did nothing.

Well said. Union people spring to mind.