By David Scott
19 January 2010
Scottish Tories have condemned plans by the Holyrood government to end the right of all new tenants to buy their council or housing association homes.
Chief whip David McLetchie described the decision, the first major change to the policy introduced by the Conservatives 25 years ago, as an ‘act of naked political vandalism’.
He said: ‘Nearly half a million homes have been bought thanks to a policy which has done more to make housing affordable for working people in Scotland than any other before or since.
‘At the same time receipts from sales, now approaching £7bn, have enabled other rented homes to be modernised and new council houses to be built for those who continued to rent in the past 25 years.’
Scottish Labour said ministers should be providing enough cash to build more homes rather than ‘tinkering’ with the right to buy.
The decision to end the right-to-buy scheme for new council and social housing tenants and abolish it for all new homes built in the sector is one of the main features of a new housing Bill.
The planned legislation also provides measures to strengthen protection for tenants through a new housing regulator and sets out proposals for taking action against rogue landlords.
Housing minister Alex Neil said the right-to-buy reforms were expected to retain up to 18,000 properties in the social housing sector that would otherwise have been sold off.
He added: ‘The housing Bill is a major piece of legislation that will increase the supply of affordable housing and improve the quality of housing in all sectors.’
The housing charity, Shelter Scotland, said the sale of almost half a million public sector homes since right to buy was introduced had resulted in Scottish social rented housing levels being ‘at a 50-year low’.
It was a measure that had ‘robbed communities of social housing,’ the charity claimed.
