8th May 2009
By David Scott in Edinburgh
The right to buy scheme is to be abolished for tenants of new-build social homes in Scotland, Health and Wellbeing Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
Giving details of a draft housing Bill consultation paper, Sturgeon said the measures were aimed at safeguarding social rented housing for future generations.
Further reforms planned include a Scottish social housing charter, which will set out what social landlords should be providing for their tenants, and measures aimed at giving greater independence to the Scottish housing regulator.
The consultation paper suggested that, in addition to abolishing RTB on new supply social housing, consideration would also be given to ending the right for all new social housing tenants.
‘While not affecting the entitlements of existing tenants, this would mean that, in general, those becoming tenants for the first time and those returning to social housing from other tenures would no longer be entitled to RTB on any social housing,’ the paper stated.
It said the proposed social housing charter would make clear the standards that social landlords and homelessness services should be providing for their tenants and other service users.
According to the paper, a ‘modernised’ housing regulator would operate independently with its own board. It would aim to safeguard and promote the interests of tenants and people using other housing services.
Sturgeon said: ‘The proposals included in this consultation mean that councils and housing associations will be able to use a record £1.5bn investment to build a new generation of affordable homes without the fear that they will be lost to tenants exercising RTB.’
Labour in Scotland condemned the plans ‘as a cynical attempt to distract attention from the Scottish National Party’s failure to help housing associations build new affordable homes’.
The Scottish Conservatives warned that the policy would result in future generations having fewer chances to get on the housing ladder.
