| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Right to buy | |
| Posted by: | Adrian Irving | |
| Date/Time: | 16/04/15 14:57:00 |
| "nobody has come up with a cogent argument for giving people these rights." 1. The money raised will be used to build new properties in the same sector that otherwise would not have been built i.e. increase the overall supply. The original right to buy scheme was flawed in this respect but was subsequently improved. So from the sale of a property at 65% of it’s value you can build one plus how many new homes? 2. Council tenants (and certain private sector tenants) have the right to buy so why should this same right be denied to those who happen to live in other forms of social housing? No major party proposes to abolish the right to buy for Council tenants. Two wrongs don’t make a right. 3. The discount reflects the commercial reality that there is a sitting tenant in the property. Landlords with tenants on registered rents can expect up to a one third discount if they try and sell. No, the discount represents a bribe to get their vote. Nothing in my commercial world adds up to what your claiming, but then I am not in politics where 1+ 1 can = well, whatever suits. 4. There are problems that emerge when properties leave the social housing sector but legislation has long existed to deal with bad practices by dodgy landlords. Local Authorities should be shamed into enforcing the laws that are already there. Agreed. But nothing to with the Right to Buy 5. Ultimately housing policy should about providing individuals with choice and diversity in the housing market. One size does not fit all. For some renting in the social housing sector will be the only long term option, for others the private rental sector offers many advantages. Just because the Germans and others do not aspire to home ownership is that any reason why the British should not? I was answering a completely different question when I referred to the Germans, not directly connected to the Right to Buy The final litmus test should be Chairman Deng's "what does it matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice?" Some people seem to have taken mild offence when I refer to ‘these people’. None intended so substitute ‘these people’ for anyone on the planet. The answer to our Nation's housing problems probably lies with a piebald cat and I feel sure that Chairman Deng would have approved. As a professional property person forty years odd I can tell you no Government has been able even to begin to sort out the housing NEEDS of the British people but spectacularly succeeded into turning it into an investment vehicle. God forbid it is ever solved, the bankers would hate that! |