How will the new Right to Buy affect Britain’s housing crisis?

Conservatives extend Right to Buy to Housing Associations

Commentators say that the key is whether allowing people to buy their houses will simply take more houses out of the social housing sector and push up house prices for others or whether new houses will be built to replace them.

Housing Associations have not welcomed the policy and say that they cannot be forced to build. They say that Housing Associations would need compensation for any loss incurred by sales under the new Right to Buy scheme, which she estimates to be between £5 and £20 billion.

Theresa May said that the new policy would also push Local Authorities into selling off their most valuable housing stock and then use that money to reinvest into more homes, a scheme she said would raise £4.5 billion a year.

The Conservatives say that if the housing associations wont use the money to build more money to build starter homes and that they will oblige local authorities to replace houses that local authorities

Theresa May could not explain exactly how new houses would be built but said that the party intended to build 400,000 new “starter homes” in the next Parliament and funnel some of the money into Brownfield projects.

Shelter say that local authorities have been lax and slow at replacing and building new houses and would welcome any new laws and polices that would force them to do so.

However they say that 26,184 social rented homes sold through right to buy since it was revived and only 2,712 have so far been replaced.

The policy is also a direct pitch to English voters – housing policy is devolved in Wales and Scotland.

Labour have attacked the plan as “uncosted” and “unbelievable” and argue that home ownership is at it’s lowest point for three decades.

They say that last year the scheme raised just £100m and has predicted costs of £4.5 billion.

The Lib Dems make the point that was put to Mrs May this morning, that the policy will only benefit the “lucky few” and lead to “longer waiting lists for homes and fewer social houses.”