Plans to scrap right to buy

[Brillopad]

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/15418947.Plans_to_scrap_right_to_buy_policy_are_me t_with_mixed_reaction_in_Senedd/

I'm not surprised there is a mixed reaction to this. Like many I believe the right to buy gives many social housing tenants an opportunity to better their lives and those of their children. I think it is one of the more positive policies that have come from the Conservative government.

I am appalled at Corbyn's attempt, amongst others, to scrap this policy and, in my opinion, goes against trying to help people at the lower end of the earnings market. It is a positive and productive policy.

There should be room in a labour agenda to give people the chance to own their own property and improve their lives as well as successive future generations. If people own their own homes they have the opportunities to help their children and their children help their children etc. I also believe it would encourage people to want more for themselves and to have something to pass onto their children and want to work and come off benefits.

In my opinion, shame on Corbyn and other Labour MPs for this elitist and downright social stagnation of the less well off.

The only answer to reduced availability of social housing is to build more. If Corbyn thinks there is enough money in the pot to pay uni fees and backdate it for all students then there is enough to replenish the social housing stock. Maybe this policy should be revisited as people across the age spectrum should be considered in that manifesto. Currently it comes across as very selective.

[arista]

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/15418947.Plans_to_scrap_right_to_buy_policy_are_me t_with_mixed_reaction_in_Senedd/

I'm not surprised there is a mixed reaction to this. Like many I believe the right to buy gives many social housing tenants an opportunity to better their lives and those of their children. I think it is one of the more positive policies that have come from the Conservative government.

I am appalled at Corbyn's attempt, amongst others, to scrap this policy and, in my opinion, goes against trying to help people at the lower end of the earnings market. It is a positive and productive policy.

There should be room in a labour agenda to give people the chance to own their own property and improve their lives as well as successive future generations. If people own their own homes they have the opportunities to help their children and their children help their children etc. I also believe it would encourage people to want more for themselves and to have something to pass onto their children and want to work and come off benefits.

In my opinion, shame on Corbyn and other Labour MPs for this elitist and downright social stagnation of the less well off.

The only answer to reduced availability of social housing is to build more. If Corbyn thinks there is enough money in the pot to pay uni fees and backdate it for all students then there is enough to replenish the social housing stock. Maybe this policy should be revisited as people across the age spectrum should be considered in that manifesto. Currently it comes across as very selective.


This is the Wales Government
doing this.

Labour are not in power at this time
Conservative /DUP are in control

[Underscore]

This is the Wales Government
doing this.

Labour are not in power at this time
Conservative /DUP are in control

I do believe Labour is in control of the Welsh Assembly though which I do believe oversees housing

[Brillopad]

This is the Wales Government
doing this.

Labour are not in power at this time
Conservative /DUP are in control

I know Arista, but Corbyn plans to scrap the right to buy in England if he gets in. Typical of his hard left-wing policies and why Labour faired so hard for so many years. The young generally don't own property and simply haven't thought that far ahead. They will.

[arista]

I know Arista, but Corbyn plans to scrap the right to buy in England if he gets in. Typical of his hard left-wing policies and why Labour faired so hard for so many years. The young generally don't own property and simply haven't thought that far ahead. They will.


He is Not yet in Power
so this thread is only about The Welsh Government

[arista]

I do believe Labour is in control of the Welsh Assembly though which I do believe oversees housing


No
there is
Welsh Government Assembly
Conservative
and Labour


not sure if UKIP are permitted in
as I think they lost there seats
not 100% sure
I do not live in Wales

[Toy Soldier]

It's already been scrapped in Scotland and tbh I sort of support scrapping it. The village I live in is a rather "well off" one and has several streets with ex-council housing and basically ZERO actual council housing. And I'd say it's only maybe 25% right-to-buy families living in these houses... The vast majority have been bought to rent out privately. So basically people paying £600 a month to a private landlord to rent an ex council house that that landlord bought on the cheap. The system has sadly been horribly abused. If right to buy is to be allowed, in my opinion it nerds to be with the condition that the buyer does NOT intend to sell or rent out the property, and plans to live there long term, with fines for anyone abusing the system.

I agree that there's a major problem with young families being unable to buy for the first time, but there's other things that could be done to help young first time buyers, e.g help with deposits and government-backed low interest mortgages for first timers.

[Wizard.]

Right To Buy only works if more council houses are being built and unfortunately they're not.

[Brillopad]

It's already been scrapped in Scotland and tbh I sort of support scrapping it. The village I live in is a rather "well off" one and has several streets with ex-council housing and basically ZERO actual council housing. And I'd say it's only maybe 25% right-to-buy families living in these houses... The vast majority have been bought to rent out privately. So basically people paying £600 a month to a private landlord to rent an ex council house that that landlord bought on the cheap. The system has sadly been horribly abused. If right to buy is to be allowed, in my opinion it nerds to be with the condition that the buyer does NOT intend to sell or rent out the property, and plans to live there long term, with fines for anyone abusing the system.

I agree that there's a major problem with young families being unable to buy for the first time, but there's other things that could be done to help young first time buyers, e.g help with deposits and government-backed low interest mortgages for first timers.

I believe there are certain restrictions for those buying their Council house such as not being able to sell it for a certain period of time. But once that time is up you can't stop home owners from selling their own property.

I would agree perhaps that there should perhaps be a stipulation that they cannot lease the property for a long period of time ie 15-20 years. If they do they should have to pay back the discount they received when buying the house. I imagine that would have a significant effect on the problem.

And as I mentioned earlier if there is enough money to pay for old uni debts there is enough for new Council houses. Priorities. The only reason past debts have been included is to prevent screams of unfairness and discrimination from previous students who still owe money or those that have paid their debts but want to be recompensed.

[Brillopad]

Right To Buy only works if more council houses are being built and unfortunately they're not.

According to Labour there is plenty of money available. It should be better distributed then in my opinion.

[Toy Soldier]

Money isn't the only obstacle to building more council housing though. Around cities where there's plenty of "brown" (ex commercial) sites it's not so difficult, but where I live, finding a site for new council housing is a problem. They had planned a development nearby and ended up having to scrap it because of protests and complaints over "views being ruined" / devaluation of surrounding properties, etc.

[joeysteele]

Bad policy when it came out that has led to far less social housing now.
With greedy sources buying up former council housing then privately renting it out at ridiculously high rents.

Plus,the family buying the house at original massively discounted price.
Once the parents die,many houses just get sold giving a nice sum to the family.

This is only a good idea if council housing is replaced.
Otherwise the right to buy policy just means less vitally needed affordable to rent housing now and in the future.

[Vicky.]

I have always thought this idea was stupid. Despite it potentially benefiting me greatly one day. Just a silly silly idea that began for a bit short term funding and just ran and ran, whilst no government even attempted to replenish stock it sold off and now we have the social housing crisis...

Council places these days are largely based on luck. I don't think the lucky few should benefit from being able to buy cheaper when those who simply aren't as lucky cannot. Many are forced into the private rental market and pay much more rent than those in council properties do...for a much worse service, and will never own their own home either.

[smudgie]

I think it should be scrapped.
The idea of council/social housing is so that people can have access to affordable rents.
Selling them off takes this option away, yes it gives the tenants a chance to buy cheap but in reality it drives private rents and house prices up so that more people in the lower pay brackets and on benefit suffer.
The idea of building new council houses to make up for those sold doesn't work for me either.
Why should we pay council tax to pay to build houses that will eventually be sold off, a never ending circle.
I can see why there is a reluctance to build houses only for them to be sold off.

[Kizzy]

I'm conflicted here, social housing is important there has to be an affordable housing option for those on low incomes that's a given. But it has to be said I don't think that rtb works as well as it should, housing is sold and not replaced exacerbating the homelessness situation.

I say I'm conflicted as I hope to soon purchase my home from the council, however I do not feel I have any rights from the council to allow me to buy my home.

[Withano]

.
.
. If Corbyn thinks there is enough money in the pot to pay uni fees and backdate it for all students then there is enough to replenish the social housing stock. .

I'm so certain that you dont understand what is happening right now, but you spend so much time talking about labour and tories it that I kinda feel bad for suggesting that.
You say stuff like this all the time lol. You know its been completely irrelevant ever since May clung to power, right? All of Labours policies can not work under May's power because there is less money to play with.. they can no longer vote how they want to, as they have to vote with the current budget (multitudes less than what could have been) in mind.
You understand that right, its like the basic part. Your posts keep suggesting that you dont understand the basic part to an election.

[Kizzy]

If there is money for destroyers. nuclear power plants, fracking, HS2 and DUP bribes there is money for housing...

[Withano]

If there is money for destroyers. nuclear power plants, fracking, HS2 and DUP bribes there is money for housing...

You'd think. I guesss this is why costed manifestos are important - there needs to be way more transparency.

[Northern Monkey]

I think it should be scrapped.
The idea of council/social housing is so that people can have access to affordable rents.
Selling them off takes this option away, yes it gives the tenants a chance to buy cheap but in reality it drives private rents and house prices up so that more people in the lower pay brackets and on benefit suffer.
The idea of building new council houses to make up for those sold doesn't work for me either.
Why should we pay council tax to pay to build houses that will eventually be sold off, a never ending circle.
I can see why there is a reluctance to build houses only for them to be sold off.
Yeah i agree.I think that right to buy would only be a good idea if there was ample budget and space for and will to build enough social housing and even then it could only be for a limited time only as eventually we will run out of space to build.

[Brillopad]

I'm so certain that you dont understand what is happening right now, but you spend so much time talking about labour and tories it that I kinda feel bad for suggesting that.
You say stuff like this all the time lol. You know its been completely irrelevant ever since May clung to power, right? All of Labours policies can not work under May's power because there is less money to play with.. they can no longer vote how they want to, as they have to vote with the current budget (multitudes less than what could have been) in mind.
You understand that right, its like the basic part. Your posts keep suggesting that you dont understand the basic part to an election.

And he isn't trying to convince everyone that he could still get in yet is he, and as I'm sure you are aware it is still possible. So don't patronise me.

[Kizzy]

And he isn't trying to convince everyone that he could still get in yet is he, and as I'm sure you are aware it is still possible. So don't patronise me.

He could get in and I fully hope he does whether or not he ends the rtb, I still support him as he is doing it for the right reasons, not for the benefit of lobbyists.

[Brillopad]

He could get in and I fully hope he does whether or not he ends the rtb, I still support him as he is doing it for the right reasons, not for the benefit of lobbyists.

You believe he is - I don't.

[the truth]

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/15418947.Plans_to_scrap_right_to_buy_policy_are_me t_with_mixed_reaction_in_Senedd/

I'm not surprised there is a mixed reaction to this. Like many I believe the right to buy gives many social housing tenants an opportunity to better their lives and those of their children. I think it is one of the more positive policies that have come from the Conservative government.

I am appalled at Corbyn's attempt, amongst others, to scrap this policy and, in my opinion, goes against trying to help people at the lower end of the earnings market. It is a positive and productive policy.

There should be room in a labour agenda to give people the chance to own their own property and improve their lives as well as successive future generations. If people own their own homes they have the opportunities to help their children and their children help their children etc. I also believe it would encourage people to want more for themselves and to have something to pass onto their children and want to work and come off benefits.

In my opinion, shame on Corbyn and other Labour MPs for this elitist and downright social stagnation of the less well off.

The only answer to reduced availability of social housing is to build more. If Corbyn thinks there is enough money in the pot to pay uni fees and backdate it for all students then there is enough to replenish the social housing stock. Maybe this policy should be revisited as people across the age spectrum should be considered in that manifesto. Currently it comes across as very selective.

what young naive students forget about comrade corbyn and his socialist / comminist buddies...is they want to take away your individuality and your real choices, they want to take away your ambition and make you beholdent/enslaved to them and their handouts for life....theyre the equivalent of the dodgy old person who offer you boiled sweets , the person your parents always warn you to avoid. santa corbyn is a dangerous man making false promises like the wicked queen of narnia, heres some turkish delight for a quick fix populist cheap pleasure but it will poison you for life with debts loss of ambition etc

[DemolitionRed]

I think it should be scrapped.
The idea of council/social housing is so that people can have access to affordable rents.
Selling them off takes this option away, yes it gives the tenants a chance to buy cheap but in reality it drives private rents and house prices up so that more people in the lower pay brackets and on benefit suffer.

Bingo. The selling off of our council housing and more recently, our social housing, has pushed rents and private house prices through the roof.


The idea of building new council houses to make up for those sold doesn't work for me either.
Why should we pay council tax to pay to build houses that will eventually be sold off, a never ending circle.
I can see why there is a reluctance to build houses only for them to be sold off.

Really good point and not something I'd thought about.

Social housing should belong to everybody. It was only about 35 years ago when the British government were the biggest landlords in Europe and what stopped that was the biggest move on privatization in history. Many people along the line have made a lot of money from purchasing something heavily subsidized. I don't in any way blame the ex tenant buyers, but I do blame the government who sold off something that used to belong to all of us.
Now we have 25-30 year waiting lists.

[the truth]

Bingo. The selling off of our council housing and more recently, our social housing, has pushed rents and private house prices through the roof.



Really good point and not something I'd thought about.

Social housing should belong to everybody. It was only about 35 years ago when the British government were the biggest landlords in Europe and what stopped that was the biggest move on privatization in history. Many people along the line have made a lot of money from purchasing something heavily subsidized. I don't in any way blame the ex tenant buyers, but I do blame the government who sold off something that used to belong to all of us.
Now we have 25-30 year waiting lists.
thats communism

[DemolitionRed]

thats communism

Em no! its having a social structure in housing :hehe:

[the truth]

Em no! its having a social structure in housing :hehe:

no its not, you want to take away everyones opportunity and ambition to buy one? thats communism. ambition is critical!

[DemolitionRed]

Now we have very little social (government owned) housing left so the Cons clasp their hands and come up with the idea of extending the right to buy to housing association tenants. Unlike council houses, the government don’t own these homes and so it has to compensate the housing associations every time there's a sale. The only way they can do this is by snatching newly vacated council property and selling it for its real market value. That spare money is then used to compensate housing association sales. Obviously, the higher value the council house, the more money in the pot. Higher value council houses in the most affluent parts of London are NOT being sold off to tenants and because tenants are not moving on quickly enough, government repossession orders are getting these tenants relocated to two bedroom properties in places like Dudley. What we won’t see is new council houses being built.

We have over 2 million people on council house waiting lists and we are losing around 100,000 social homes a year. More and more tenants are having to move into privately owned properties and will pay double or more in rent and have to abide by costly contracts that could see them out on the street in six months. Even people with disabilities are having to rent privately.

[DemolitionRed]

no its not, you want to take away everyones opportunity and ambition to buy one? thats communism. ambition is critical!

No, I just want my children to have real choice without being crippled by debt. Perhaps that's selfish but then aren't we all to some extent :shrug:

[the truth]

No, I just want my children to have real choice without being crippled by debt. Perhaps that's selfish but then aren't we all to some extent :shrug:

lol well dont vote labour then because debt is all they will leave your children

[jet]

I'm so certain that you dont understand what is happening right now, but you spend so much time talking about labour and tories it that I kinda feel bad for suggesting that.
You say stuff like this all the time lol. You know its been completely irrelevant ever since May clung to power, right? All of Labours policies can not work under May's power because there is less money to play with.. they can no longer vote how they want to, as they have to vote with the current budget (multitudes less than what could have been) in mind.
You understand that right, its like the basic part. Your posts keep suggesting that you dont understand the basic part to an election.

Corbyn said he'd be in power within 6 months, remember? That would less than 5 months now. Just in time for Christmas and Santa Corbyn with his big money sack. Yippee!

[Withano]

Corbyn said he'd be in power within 6 months, remember? That would less than 5 months now. Just in time for Christmas and Santa Corbyn with his big money sack. Yippee!

:fc:

[Brillopad]

:fc:

Not so clued up as you imply. :hehe:

[Withano]

Not so clued up as you imply. :hehe:

Its cool that you can make presumptions from an emoji. I've stated not so long ago, in quite a large discussion with you why i tend to ignore the debates nowadays, thats still the case - its still not worth my time, its changed for the worse very recently (see the post I quoted here for an example).

[DemolitionRed]

no its not, you want to take away everyones opportunity and ambition to buy one? thats communism. ambition is critical!

Hang on, "take away everyone's opportunity and ambition to buy one"

You only have the opportunity if you've already had the opportunity but for those who haven't had that opportunity, there's likely no future opportunity to buy... Got it?

[the truth]

Hang on, "take away everyone's opportunity and ambition to buy one"

You only have the opportunity if you've already had the opportunity but for those who haven't had that opportunity, there's likely no future opportunity to buy... Got it?

yeyyy santa corbyn will bring us banktuptcy and communism for Christmas

[DemolitionRed]

This is like playing chess with pigeons...
no matter how good you are, the bird is going to siht on the board and strut around like it won anyway. :pipe:

[Withano]

This is like playing chess with pigeons...
no matter how good you are, the bird is going to siht on the board and strut around like it won anyway. :pipe:

:joker:

[Brillopad]

Its cool that you can make presumptions from an emoji. I've stated not so long ago, in quite a large discussion with you why i tend to ignore the debates nowadays, thats still the case - its still not worth my time, its changed for the worse very recently (see the post I quoted here for an example).

I'm talking about your sarcasm in post 16 where you accuse me of getting confused about who is currently in power when I was clearly talking about if Corbyn gets into power. You didn't seem to get that he could still get in, The Tories are not out of the woods yet. :smug:

[Withano]

I'm talking about your sarcasm in post 16 where you accuse me of getting confused about who is currently in power when I was clearly talking about if Corbyn gets into power. You didn't seem to get that he could still get in, The Tories are not out of the woods yet. :smug:

:fc:

[DemolitionRed]

I'm talking about your sarcasm in post 16 where you accuse me of getting confused about who is currently in power when I was clearly talking about if Corbyn gets into power. You didn't seem to get that he could still get in, The Tories are not out of the woods yet. :smug:

:fc::fc:

[the truth]

This is like playing chess with pigeons...
no matter how good you are, the bird is going to siht on the board and strut around like it won anyway. :pipe:

youre the pigeon you expect society to pay to clean up your ****

[Toy Soldier]

More and more tenants are having to move into privately owned properties and will pay double or more in rent and have to abide by costly contracts that could see them out on the street in six months.

IIRC Truth is a private landlord so this probably makes his balls tingle with glee.

[the truth]

IIRC Truth is a private landlord so this probably makes his balls tingle with glee.

yeah the left peddle all landlords as evil ebeneezer scrooges and all tennants to be florence nightingale types.....Im sure that sells well to naive students , the real world is totally different, its called real politik

[Toy Soldier]

yeah the left peddle all landlords as evil ebeneezer scrooges

As someone who has been renting privately since I was 18, with 6 different landlords... Yeah that sounds pretty accurate. I've had one who was brilliant, one who was decent, and four who have been money-grubbing arseholes.

[jet]

IIRC Truth is a private landlord so this probably makes his balls tingle with glee.

That's unfair...

[Toy Soldier]

That's unfair...It's unfair to suggest that a right-"leaning" private landlord is probably happy about there being more money in the private rental business due to a lack of social housing?

In what possible way is it unfair?

[jet]

It's unfair to suggest that a right-"leaning" private landlord is probably happy about there being more money in the private rental business due to a lack of social housing?

In what possible way is it unfair?

If you'd said it like that in the first place, nothing, if this time you had also taken out the right - leaning bit. (thanks DM, I missed that!) :hee:

[DemolitionRed]

Being a landlord or a tenant has nothing to do with being right or left wing. To suggest such a thing goes to show how pointless this sort of debate is.

Don't shoot me but I used to be an estate agent for a well known and apparently reputable company :dog: As well as sales we did rentals and so I saw first hand how the scams worked. Yes you get some awful landlords and yes you get some equally awful tenants but the biggest evil in property rentals are the agents running full management contracts. I once wrote but never got round to publishing a document aimed at tenants and landlords regarding how their letting agent could and likely would screw them over.

[Toy Soldier]

Being a landlord or a tenant has nothing to do with being right or left wing. To suggest such a thing goes to show how pointless this sort of debate is.

Don't shoot me but I used to be an estate agent for a well known and apparently reputable company :dog: As well as sales we did rentals and so I saw first hand how the scams worked. Yes you get some awful landlords and yes you get some equally awful tenants but the biggest evil in property rentals are the agents running full management contracts. I once wrote but never got round to publishing a document aimed at tenants and landlords regarding how their letting agent could and likely would screw them over.To be fair, with one of my "bad landlords" I'm pretty sure that 90% of the problem was miscommunication via the rental company. Everything we got via them sounded short and snippy, whereas when the guy actually came round he was always helpful and pleasant. And yet we had major issues getting our deposit back (with ridiculous claims like £100 for cleaning the kitchen when I had spend every night after work for a week going back to the house to make sure it was immaculate) and that was all handled via the rental company.

[DemolitionRed]

To be fair, with one of my "bad landlords" I'm pretty sure that 90% of the problem was miscommunication via the rental company. Everything we got via them sounded short and snippy, whereas when the guy actually came round he was always helpful and pleasant. And yet we had major issues getting our deposit back (with ridiculous claims like £100 for cleaning the kitchen when I had spend every night after work for a week going back to the house to make sure it was immaculate) and that was all handled via the rental company.

Sounds familiar unfortunately. I would advise anyone who's looking to rent to insist on knowing the landlord and any landlord looking for tenants to know their tenants. Agents don't want you knowing each other because you may just find out that you are both being scammed.

Even though deposits are protected, when left in the hands of an agent, they may try and hold on to it. Its always a good idea to take photographs when you enter the property and again before you leave. Its the same with infantries. Both landlords and tenants need to scrutinize before signing and keep a copy for themselves.