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Swansea Council suspends Right to Buy to protect social housing stock (13 April 2015)

Date: 13/04/2015
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Swansea Council suspends Right to Buy to protect social housing stock

The Welsh Assembly (WA) has granted permission to Swansea Council to suspend Right to Buy for five years, in a move to ease housing pressures in Wales.

Social housing publisher 24Dash.com reports that Wales may abandon the policy across the whole of the country and a public consultation is underway.

The WA’s Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister Lesley Griffiths has this year published a White Paper setting out the Welsh Government’s intention to end Right to Buy and Right to Acquire, in a move that will protect all social housing stock in the country.

In much of the UK, social housing stock sold under Right to Buy has been snapped up by the buy to let rental sector, with former council homes being re-let to private sector rental tenants at market rents.

This has not only depleted social housing stock – but has also fuelled spiralling private sector rents across the UK as more families and low income households compete for affordable private rental sector homes.

Some local councils are now buying back former council homes when they come back onto the market if the price is affordable.

There have also been cases of Right to Buy fraud, where some council tenants on benefits have bought their homes – purportedly with a loan from family overseas to pay for the property.

Benefits claimants are not allowed to have more than £16,000 in savings.

WA Communities Minister Ms Griffiths said:

“Approving Swansea’s application to suspend the right to buy in its area will help the authority to safeguard its social housing stock as part of its ongoing action to meet local people’s housing needs.”

Swansea Council’s cabinet member for communities and housing, Councillor David Hopkins, added:

“Over the past decade, more than 1,500 council houses in Swansea have been sold under the Right to Buy scheme.

“This has led to a significant shortage of affordable housing in the city, which is why we applied to the Welsh Government to suspend the scheme.

“As a council, one of our key objectives is tackling poverty. This successful application will help us make further progress by helping meet demand for social housing and reducing the decline in the number of council properties available to rent.

"We’ve also started detailed work on a strategy for more council housing locally which will include an assessment of the type of accommodation to be built, where they should be provided and the available funding options.

“This means, within a short time, new council housing will be built in Swansea for the first time in a generation.”

As well as Right to Buy, council tenants may be given the right to move for the purpose of taking up employment in another area without losing housing rights.

The UK government launched a consultation before Parliament was dissolved pending May’s General Election.

Duncan Lewis Housing Solicitors

Duncan Lewis housing solicitors can advise social housing tenants and private rental tenants on a wide range of housing matters, including Local Authority housing (including Section 193 Housing Act) and Right to Buy.

Duncan Lewis is also a leading firm of Legal Aid solicitors able to advise on:


• Disrepair of rented property
• Housing Benefit
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For expert legal advice on housing law, call Duncan Lewis housing solicitors on 020 7923 4020.

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