14 March 2003
Four London boroughs are being forced to cut the discounts they offer council tenants who buy their homes through the right to buy scheme, despite telling Whitehall they want to retain existing incentives.
Most of the 42 councils in London and the Southeast identified last month by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister accepted they should reduce the maximum discount to £16,000 from March 27. But six appealed, saying they wished to continue offering the existing maximum of £38,000.
While the ODPM agreed that Christchurch, Dorset, and Spelthorne, Surrey, can keep existing discounts, appeals from Enfield, Hillingdon, Wandsworth and Westminster were rejected.
Three of the councils whose appeals were rejected are Tory-controlled, while Hillingdon has no party in overall control.
Housing minister Lord Rooker said the four London councils had failed to produce specific evidence to support their cases. Both Christchurch and Spelthorne, however, demonstrated that local housing market pressures did not justify lowering discounts.
In addition, research carried out for the ODPM by Heriot-Watt University had found clear evidence that right to buy rules were being exploited in London.
The London Borough of Greenwich, which was left off the ODPM's original list, is to be allowed to reduce right to buy discounts at its own request.
In Westminster, where tenants made 380 applications in February compared with a normal monthly average of 35, the council said that it would cut discounts with reluctance. A spokesman said: 'We are not in a position to do anything other than what the government says.'
In Wandsworth, Martin Johnson, Cabinet member for housing, said: 'We have still had no explanation as to why our arguments have been dismissed.'
The government says it wants to preserve affordable housing and discourage abuses by leasing companies.
Rooker said Labour was still committed to the principle of right to buy. 'The modernisation of the scheme demonstrates how the government is continuing to support home ownership,' he added.
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