Government unveils new plan to abolish tenants' right to buy

Published on Thursday 14 January 2010 10:10

A NEW Bill to abolish the right to buy for new tenants and help veterans in need of a home was unveiled by the Scottish Government today.

Housing minister Alex Neil was visiting Musselburgh to unveil the new legislation, which he said would increase the quality and supply of affordable housing.

However, the Tories accused the SNP of "naked political vandalism" in scrapping what was a flagship Conservative policy.

Under the proposed Housing Bill, new council house and housing association tenants will no longer have the right to buy their homes.

Over the past 30 years the right to buy (RTB) scheme has resulted in the sale, at a discount, of almost 500,000 rented homes in Scotland.

The right to buy for new-build social housing in Scotland will also be scrapped.

The Scottish Government says the Bill is a blueprint to safeguard Scotland's social housing stock.

It forecasts that over the next decade the RTB reforms will retain up to 18,000 properties in the social housing sector that would have been sold off.

Edinburgh Pentlands Conservative MSP David McLetchie, however, said the right to buy had allowed more than a million Scots to get their foot on the housing ladder. He said: "Nearly half a million homes were 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 enabled other rented homes to be modernised and new council houses to be built for those who continued to rent.

"Now Alex Salmond's SNP wants to wield the axe to that policy. It is little short of naked political vandalism."

The government also proposes a change in the law to make it easier for ex-forces veterans to get social housing in their area by establishing a "local connection", one of the criteria used by councils in assessing priorities.

At the moment, the law says people serving in the armed forces do not establish a local connection with an area as a result of living or working there.

The Bill would also create a new Scottish Housing Regulator and introduce a charter for social housing, which the government says would improve value for tenants and taxpayers by assessing landlords' performance.

Mr Neil said the Bill was a major piece of legislation that would increase the supply of affordable housing and improve the quality of housing in all sectors.

He said: "The Scottish Government is investing a record 1.5 billion in affordable housing – including a new generation of council housing. These far- reaching reforms will safeguard that investment for future generations.

"The modernisation of regulation will put the interests of tenants and homeless people at the heart of housing regulation and encourage landlords to improve the services that they provide."

Mr Neil also announced he was setting up a "stakeholder group" to maintain a dialogue with the housing sector as the Bill progresses through parliament.