How many councils will go bust?

[Hardhat]

https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/hackney-right-to-buy-homes-bought-back-7074288

 

The council says an average of 50 of the borough's council homes are sold each year at discounts of up to £112,300.

Income acquired from homes sold under the scheme helps to fund the creation of hundreds of new council homes through the local authority's not-for-profit housebuilding programme.

It also goes towards grants to housing associations delivering additional social housing through the mayor of Hackney’s housing challenge programme.

However, Hackney Council says "arbitrary government restrictions" on how it can spend Right to Buy receipts means, along with a lack of government funding, that its ability to replace lost homes or meet growing need is limited. 

Councils can only use money acquired from Right to Buy to pay 30 per cent of a replacement home and must spend it within three years of a sale. 

Cllr Rennison added: "It’s a tragedy that we’re paying what may be many times more than what we were forced to sell [the properties] for, and we’ll continue to make the case for reform of a policy which fails to give councils the funding and flexibility they need to replace lost social housing which has contributed towards the huge housing shortage we have today.

“In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we can to support local families here and now – whether it’s buying back former homes like these or delivering the hundreds of new council homes that Hackney is building."

 

 

Hackney: Council tenant has Right to Buy at a a £100k discount but says council can only spend 1/3 of income on replacement housing.

They are forced to buy back homes well over the price they were sold for.

Such a shit system.

[Hancock]

6 hours ago, Hardhat said:

Hackney: Council tenant has Right to Buy at a a £100k discount but says council can only spend 1/3 of income on replacement housing.

They are forced to buy back homes well over the price they were sold for.

Such a shit system.

Tories are evil scum who are all for this kind of incompetence and corruption, but Labour had 13 years to do something about council housing and continued Maggies destruction.

Good thing is 80% of people will continue to vote for this.

[Frank Hovis]

13 hours ago, Hardhat said:

They are forced to buy back homes well over the price they were sold for.

I mostly agree with your post but to be correct they are forced to sell but buying back is entirely their choice.

There is an advantage in doing this because it will be a house or flat in an area they already manage and of a build type they know.

[Hardhat]

7 hours ago, Frank Hovis said:

I mostly agree with your post but to be correct they are forced to sell but buying back is entirely their choice.

There is an advantage in doing this because it will be a house or flat in an area they already manage and of a build type they know.

True, that should have been "effectively forced"

Still, £10m  / 25 = £400,000 per flat. Assuming a HTB discount of £100k on purchase price, and assuming the flats were bought on HTB fairly recently, the council has given over £2.5m of public money to private profit right off the bat. I imagine in reality some of the flats were probably bought in the last decade or two decades, meaning an even bigger loss for the council on their HTB prices.

I actually agree with HTB to some extent, but I don't think it makes any sense in a country / postcode where property speculation is rampant. Unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle now. There's almost no sensible fix to the current system apart from scrapping it entirely.

[spygirl]

4 hours ago, Hardhat said:

True, that should have been "effectively forced"

Still, £10m  / 25 = £400,000 per flat. Assuming a HTB discount of £100k on purchase price, and assuming the flats were bought on HTB fairly recently, the council has given over £2.5m of public money to private profit right off the bat. I imagine in reality some of the flats were probably bought in the last decade or two decades, meaning an even bigger loss for the council on their HTB prices.

I actually agree with HTB to some extent, but I don't think it makes any sense in a country / postcode where property speculation is rampant. Unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle now. There's almost no sensible fix to the current system apart from scrapping it entirely.

Dp you mean right to buy?

Help to buy is another thing.

[Hardhat]

13 minutes ago, spygirl said:

Dp you mean right to buy?

Help to buy is another thing.

Yeah, RTB, my bad

[spygirl]

12 minutes ago, Hardhat said:

Yeah, RTB, my bad

RTB would work if the money raised  built a similar spec house .

That way, LAs can drive housing supply.

Land, which an LA can 'print', makes up at least 60% of housing cost.

[sarahbell]

Shiny Sean will be on the news tomorrow talking about local government finance tomorrow.

Just remember he just bought a shopping centre 

 

[spygirl]

14 hours ago, sarahbell said:

Shiny Sean will be on the news tomorrow talking about local government finance tomorrow.

Just remember he just bought a shopping centre 

 

Oh remember to post a link.