Scotland Ends Right to Buy Scheme
The Right to Buy scheme, where council tenants can buy the home they rent from the council for far below the market value, has enabled close to half a million Scottish council tenants to buy their own home since it was introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980.
Reforms have already been made in the past few years to restrict the scheme and it is already unable to new social housing tenants in Scotland but now it has been announced the scheme with be scrapped altogether within 4 years time.
Those with a right to buy at the current time now have just 3 years to exercise their right.
The hope by the Scottish government is that this will safeguard current housing stock and allow more homes to be available to those on housing list and not lost to private sales under the right ti buy scheme.
There are currently 400,000 people waiting for housing in Scotland and its thought that by ending the Right to Buy scheme there will around 15,000 additional homes available over the next few years.
The policy is seen as outdated by many and unfair to those not in social housing but unable to afford a deposit or mortgage on their own home and to those waiting on the social housing list for a home.
Councils, Housing Associations and Tenants Groups all backed the calls for stopping the scheme in the consultation process feeling it was no longer a useful scheme and was holding back the social housing supply.
Housing and homeless charities also welcomed the abolition of the scheme in the hope that it will reduce waiting lists for social housing.
The decision to end the Right to Buy scheme was initially voted through in 2010.
The Bill will now go before Parliament and then for Royal Assent and it may even be that the phasing out period of 3 years is reduced further.
But not everyone sees this as a step forward in solving the social housing crisis.
There are concerns that many will not be trapped in council housing schemes with no hope of ever getting on the property ladder.
While the scheme is being stopped in Scotland, in the UK it is being actively encouraged.
The Conservative leader in Scotland said that the right to buy scheme had been the most effective way many of the previous generation where able to purchase their own home and take pride in becoming home owners.
She went on to say it gave thousands a more stable financial future that would otherwise not have been available to them.
While the Labour government opposed the scheme at first when they came to power under Tony Blair in 1997 they embraced the scheme.
It has long been seen as a way to give hard working families an opportunity to buy their first home.
Opponents also point to the financial figures which show that the Right to Buy scheme brought in over £11 billion through the sales of council houses to tenants and this paid for 130,000 new council houses to be built.
For many it will the end of their dreams of getting on the property ladder, while for others it will represent a renewed hope they will now move up on the waiting list for social housing.
It is a fine balancing act.
Reforms have already been made in the past few years to restrict the scheme and it is already unable to new social housing tenants in Scotland but now it has been announced the scheme with be scrapped altogether within 4 years time.
Those with a right to buy at the current time now have just 3 years to exercise their right.
The hope by the Scottish government is that this will safeguard current housing stock and allow more homes to be available to those on housing list and not lost to private sales under the right ti buy scheme.
There are currently 400,000 people waiting for housing in Scotland and its thought that by ending the Right to Buy scheme there will around 15,000 additional homes available over the next few years.
The policy is seen as outdated by many and unfair to those not in social housing but unable to afford a deposit or mortgage on their own home and to those waiting on the social housing list for a home.
Councils, Housing Associations and Tenants Groups all backed the calls for stopping the scheme in the consultation process feeling it was no longer a useful scheme and was holding back the social housing supply.
Housing and homeless charities also welcomed the abolition of the scheme in the hope that it will reduce waiting lists for social housing.
The decision to end the Right to Buy scheme was initially voted through in 2010.
The Bill will now go before Parliament and then for Royal Assent and it may even be that the phasing out period of 3 years is reduced further.
But not everyone sees this as a step forward in solving the social housing crisis.
There are concerns that many will not be trapped in council housing schemes with no hope of ever getting on the property ladder.
While the scheme is being stopped in Scotland, in the UK it is being actively encouraged.
The Conservative leader in Scotland said that the right to buy scheme had been the most effective way many of the previous generation where able to purchase their own home and take pride in becoming home owners.
She went on to say it gave thousands a more stable financial future that would otherwise not have been available to them.
While the Labour government opposed the scheme at first when they came to power under Tony Blair in 1997 they embraced the scheme.
It has long been seen as a way to give hard working families an opportunity to buy their first home.
Opponents also point to the financial figures which show that the Right to Buy scheme brought in over £11 billion through the sales of council houses to tenants and this paid for 130,000 new council houses to be built.
For many it will the end of their dreams of getting on the property ladder, while for others it will represent a renewed hope they will now move up on the waiting list for social housing.
It is a fine balancing act.
Source...