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#righttobuy — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #righttobuy, aggregated by home.social.

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  1. @PKYo
    That reminds me, I should be writing to various MPs about cottages like those sold off by the #Bridgewater #Canal #Company at #PrestonBrook.

    The terrace, built in the late 1700s, was sold off one house at a time in the 1950s. They all had brick built privies clustered together in a #communal #yard. Because the remaining #tenants all needed access to the yard the canal company retained ownership and provided an annual licence to each purchaser permitting access to the communal area.

    There's no #lease. No #contract on #fees to be charged. The canal company can, it seems, charge what they like both to issue a #licence to a new #buyer of a #cottage and any #annual renewal #fee.

    We ought to be able to add some appropriate clauses onto any upcoming #legislation that gives owners of #leasehold #property the #righttobuy such communal ground.

    The attached map from 1894 shows the terrace, their privies and how some don't even have space to hang out washing to dry. @ukwaterways

  2. "The ongoing #housing crisis is particularly visible in #SocialHousing. The government allowed social landlords to increase rents by 8% in the first financial year #Labour was in power, while the availability of these homes continues to fall because of the #RightToBuy."

    #UKPol

  3. “English councils pay private landlords millions in incentives to house homeless families.” Council houses (that tenants couldn’t buy) were a really good idea. #Housing #RightToBuy

  4. “England to sell eight times more council homes than it built last year, report finds.” Good old Mrs Thatchers right to be homeless or ripped off by a private landlord. #RightToBuy #Housing

  5. >>The way out of the housing impasse is by privileging occupancy over property rights, flattening the tenure hierarchy, expanding social housing and building other decommodified housing alternatives. Resolving the housing crisis depends upon reversing and replacing the changes to the British housing system and society that the right to buy helped to bring about.<<

    theguardian.com/commentisfree/

    #UKPolitics #Housing #RightToBuy

  6. "The #housing secretary said on Wednesday that the government would consult on a series of changes to limit the number of people who can qualify for government-subsidised discounts to buy their houses."

    #UKpolitics #RightToBuy

    theguardian.com/society/2024/n

  7. “In the face of a desperate housing crisis, the existence of right to buy means we are in effect trying to refill a bath without being allowed to put the plug back in.”

    #UKpolitics #Housing #RightToBuy #Labour

    theguardian.com/society/2024/n

  8. Aha, Anglea Rayner say the Right to Buy may(!) be removed from newly built social housing.

    May... may? This needs to be move No.1 in the battle to revive & expand social housing in this country.... it may not be a sufficient move in that project, but it is definitely a necessary move.

    (But of course, the Tory press will lambast Angela Rayner who bought her own house through RtB.... she just needs to brazen it out & get on with ending RtB)

    #SocialHousing #RightToBuy

    theguardian.com/society/2024/n

  9. “New council housing in England may be removed from right to buy scheme.” About time. The Right to Buy is a disaster for social housing and was essentially Thatcher’s right to buy votes! #SocialHousing #RightToBuy

  10. #GoldsmithsStreet #Norwich won the Stirling prize for architecture in 2019…the only time social housing has won this prestigious prize. But now thanks to #Tory #RightToBuy they are being sold off…this communal asset will be in private hands and how will it be replaced?

    rightmove.co.uk/properties/148

  11. I don’t understand the objections to Right To Buy. I do understand the problems with implementation, which is very wrong, but scrapping the scheme looks like baby with bath water stuff.

    Changes required:
    Purchase must be at market rates.
    Money must be reinvested in homes, either refurbished on new.
    Extend the right to commercial rentals.

    “Something is stirring in England: right to buy looks imperilled, and not a moment too soon”
    theguardian.com/commentisfree/
    #UKPolitics #RightToBuy

  12. Of all the policies imposed on #Britain by #Conservative governments, few have reshaped the country’s fortunes as enduringly as #RightToBuy. For a lucky few, the policy has meant colossal windfalls and the chance to snap up some of the best properties in the country on the cheap. For the rest, right to buy has meant rising #homelessness, spiralling rents and #LocalAuthorities facing #bankruptcy as the #SocialHousing stock dwindles, year by year theguardian.com/commentisfree/
    #ToryPoliciesInAction

  13. CW: "Right to Buy"

    I have a theory that "Right to Buy" was an underlying tipping point for Brexit. If people had still been able to get a council house, they'd have been a lot less antsy about immigration.

    If so, it's a great irony that Thatcher's big idea on housing reversed her big idea on Europe. She'd have hated that.

    Also, didn't realise it had already been abolished in Scotland & Wales! Good.

    theguardian.com/commentisfree/

    #RightToBuy #UK #CouncilHousing #housing #Brexit #MargaretThatcher

  14. Thatcher’s flagship initiative, forcing councils to sell off public housing at huge discounts, has seen two-thirds of British council homes privatised. Councils are now on the brink of insolvency, largely due to the huge cost of providing temporary accommodation without enough council-owned homes left to go round.
    Brand new council houses are also going under the hammer, almost as fast as they are being built as
    councils sell off more houses than they build.

    #RightToBuy
    theguardian.com/commentisfree/

  15. Cllr Derek Louden talking about the legacy of the Tories' dreadful #RightToBuy Scheme at #HighlandCouncil on Thursday.

    TL;DW the money from the sales went to Westminster, the debt from the purchases remains with local councils.

    fediverse.tv/w/gcDHy1EwbQbkbw7

  16. ... 40% of those homes sold via #righttobuy are now in the private rented sector and people can't save enough for a mortgage due to demand massively outstripping supply. As a result #tenants are increasingly living in expensive, poorly maintained housing because we can't enforce what rights we theoretically have...

  17. This may be a controversial #housing take, but is the professionalisation of landlords a bad thing? Yes, it means that the buy-to-let crowd with their small portfolios are crowded out by big companies, but it might be an opportunity to fix the private rented sector in the #uk.

    I think we need to face facts: mass home ownership via #righttobuy was a one-time thing made possible by unique conditions such as a falling birth rate and a surplus of social housing...