Green Assembly Member Darren Johnson calls for the Mayor of London to scrap right-to-buy, warning that many council homes sold will end up as properties of private landlords, resulting in fewer low-rent homes and driving more low paid people out of London.
Darren Johnson warns that right-to-buy will end up hurting the people it is meant to help. Photograph of the De beauvoir estate in East London courtesy of Fin Fahey.
Green AM and London Assembly Housing Committee Chair Darren Johnson has called on Mayor Boris Johnson to lobby for Right-to-buy to be scrapped, as new figures reveal one third of council homes lost are in London.
Official figures show that whilst sales have jumped by a third nationwide since last year, local authorities in London accounted for 33% of exchanges – the highest percentage since the quarterly statistics became available in 2006-07.
Right-to-buy was a flagship policy of the Conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, who launched it in 1980 to allow social tenants to own their own homes, resulting dramatic reduction in housing stock available for let by councils.
The recent report from the Department for Communities and Local Government suggested that increased sales over the last year, especially in London, may in part be the result of increased discounts available to tenants looking to buy their council-owned home:
“In March 2013, the government further increased the maximum discount available for tenants living in London boroughs to £100,000.”
Darren Johnson, Green Party member of the London Assembly, told the Guardian that Right-to-Buy was “a disaster” for London, where 948 council homes were sold to tenants over the quarter.
He said: “A lot of council homes sold today will be in the hands of private landlords tomorrow. Fewer low-rent homes will drive more low paid people out of inner London. The mayor should lobby for it to be scrapped, and for councils to be allowed to borrow to invest in building many more.”