Right to buy: There is no better dream than the chance to own your own home, even if you never actually get the chance to
Manifestos are often more about dreams than the detail. And what better dream to offer than the right to buy your own home. Let’s face it , it worked beautifully for the Tories the first time they offered it up under Mrs Thatcher.
Today David Cameron held out the promise to an estimated 1.3 million families with his own version of Right to Buy , extending it to housing association properties. It’ll cost around 18 billion pounds and will be funded by effectively forcing councils to sell off thousands of their most expensive properties.
Now independent analysts have already starting questioning the maths and in an angry blog the chair of the National Housing Federation. David Orr, has said such a scheme simply isn’t workable. The suggested discounts mean housing associations would not have enough left from sales to rebuild – and all are agreed that the current housing crisis will not be solved until substantial rebuilding takes place. It’s worth bearing in mind, that the average wait for a three bedroom house in Westminster is now 12 and half years.
But does any of this matter? Tory strategists are banking on the answer to that being a no. They hope – know? – that this will be a vote winner with working class voters in key constituencies.
As a former council house girl who grew up in the seventies and eighties I well remember the desperation people felt to “own their own home” and how alluring the right to buy was to many , even if they still couldn’t afford to buy once the policy came in. As I said, it’s often more about the dream than the detail.