Right-to-buy's legacy must be addressed

The reactions of Labour and Conservatives to the new housing bill are sadly predictable. Johann Lamont, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, claims the Scottish Government is "trying to revisit the 1980s and tinkering with the right-to-buy instead of providing enough money to build more homes". And where is this money to come from, Ms Lamont? The rest of us are living in 2010 and there's a recession.

David McLetchie says the Tories will oppose the bill and "fight to protect the rights and aspirations of working people". Working people, eh? Taxi for McLetchie!

It is almost 30 years since Margaret Thatcher's government introduced right-to-buy. It gave many tenants the opportunity to buy their own homes, often at a large discount. That was welcomed by many, but the fatal flaw was that while local authorities were free to continue to build more council houses with money received from the sales, the tenants of any new houses built would have become eligible to buy their houses at a discount and to sell them on. In other words, if councils had built new social housing, they would have been spending taxpayers' money only to give much of it away in a few years to individuals. Council house-building stopped for the duration, and virtually the only social rented housing built was by housing associations.

Almost half a million council properties have now been sold off in Scotland, and as the better houses tended to be sold off first, maintenance costs for the remaining stock have, over the years, put an increasing strain on tenants and councils alike. In the late 1990s, when Labour came to power, I expected that one of their first actions as a socialist party would be to modify the right-to-buy scheme in a similar way to that proposed in the new housing bill, and for the same reasons.

But they did nothing about it, as Tony Blair was no more a socialist than Mrs Thatcher had been.

The new proposals will not affect existing tenants, but only new tenants in council or housing association properties, who will no longer be able to buy their homes. Nor will these measures at a stroke remedy the desperate shortage of homes for rent. Fife council, under its joint Liberal Democrat and SNP administration, in partnership with housing associations and with the assistance of government grants, has already begun to build new houses for rent – not enough to cover the need, to be sure, but at least it's a start.

CLLR DONALD MACGREGOR

Fife Council

Kinkell Terrace

St Andrews