27 June 2003
Local authorities should have the power to decide whether their tenants have the right to buy their homes in any part of their area, the Local Government Association has told MPs scrutinising the draft housing Bill.
LGA housing executive acting chair Richard Kemp urged the committee covering the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on June 24 that right to buy should be a matter of local discretion.
'We know our patches. Local authorities should be able to decide if RTB should apply in all or part of their area,' he said.
Merron Simpson, policy head of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said tenants in areas where right to buy did not apply should be given vouchers to buy elsewhere.
Kemp said that, by selling on quickly, tenants could use the right to buy to make an instant profit, even in northern cities where housing remains relatively low cost.
In theory, tenants who sell within three years must repay their right to buy discount to the local authority.
But in practice, Kemp said, it was very difficult for councils to keep track of who was in a house three years after it was sold, as they had no power to compel people to inform them.
Gwyneth Taylor, the association's housing programme manager, told the committee that right to buy discounts were too generous and complained that the money raised went into a central pool, instead of back into housing in the locality concerned.
CIH policy director Sarah Webb told Labour MP Chris Mole that the institute opposed government proposals to allow private developers to bid for social housing grant. 'There is an issue about giving grants to non-regulated bodies – just look at Railtrack,' she said.
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