Government announces Right to Buy agreement with housing associations and National Housing Federation

Posted: 08/10/2015

The Government announced yesterday, 7 October 2015, that an agreement has been reached with housing associations and the National Housing Federation to extend the Right to Buy scheme to 1.3 million more families across the UK, as originally promised in the Conservative Party’s election manifesto.

Under the agreement, every housing association tenant will have the right to purchase their home at Right to Buy level discounts, subject to eligibility requirements. The presumption is that housing associations would sell the tenant the property in which they live.

The Government will then compensate the housing association for the discount offered to the tenant, and housing associations will use the sales proceeds to deliver new supply. 

Housing associations will have discretion not to sell a particular property in some circumstances, but will then offer tenants the opportunity to use their discount to buy an alternative home from either their own or another association’s stock. 

Aside from the announcement, the detail of the agreement is not yet known and questions over the proposal still abound - not least of which is how and whether the agreement will apply to those housing associations who voted against the proposal.

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