A Call to Stop Selling Council Houses in Scotland
Housing spokesman Jim Tolson raised a concern at the Scottish Liberal Democrat party's conference in Aviemore of existing council houses being sold. He has called for Councils to be given the power to scrap tenants’ rights to buy their own homes.
The motion was carried at the conference where the party’s housing spokesman said “radical change was needed to protect the existing housing stock of Councils and registered social landlords like Housing Associations”.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the current housing system was not meeting Scotland's needs.
Some 25,000 news houses are being built each year in Scotland but this is “simply inadequate” said Ms Sturgeon. "It is a fact that the Scottish housing system is not meeting our needs as a country," she added.
Liverpool Council
Last year Liverpool was warned to stop selling off council property at discounted rates. In one circumstances the council had approved the sale of three properties for £640.000, which was far below their true market value. The council made a profit of only £14,000 from the sale.
Other properties and land within the city have been sold at a massive loss of revenue. Two such assets sold off cheaply were Devonshire Place in Everton with an estimated worth of £75,000 but only earned the city £1, while land and properties in the Rockfield areas sold to Arena Housing Association also for just £1.
Councilor Anderson of Liverpool city said: “More than 12,500 are waiting for council housing and that’s growing. So we really do need to stimulate the building of social housing and housing for rent.”
Margaret Thatcher and the Right to Buy
Council tenants have been buying their own homes at discounted rates since the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made it possible for them to do so in the 1980’s.
Some people were able to buy their homes for as little as £4000. Those same homes in today’s housing market would now be valued at approximately £140.000.
Since the right-to-buy policy was introduced, tens of thousands of people in Scotland alone have purchased their homes. More than 28,000 people in 2002 applied to buy their own homes.
With council houses being sold off and far less homes being available to rent, the housing shortage had now become a real concern. Rising house prices and mortgages have made it nigh on impossible for a lot of first time buyers to get onto the property ladder. Finding rented accommodation can be just as expensive and considered ‘dead money’ by many.
Councils’ have seen a rush in the right to buy homes scheme when news of demolishing and rebuilding plans has been made public. Once the property has been sold to the tenant at a discount price, the Council has found itself in a situation that is has had to re-buy the property back at the full market price, plus a 10% increase as part of the regeneration scheme. On one estate a rush in right to buy applications doubled the cost of rebuilding homes and improving the surrounding area.
Many people for one reason or another are unable to obtain a council property and will never be given the chance to own their own, or even rent from the council. The ‘right to buy’ scheme has given some people the gift of stepping onto the first rung of the property market, and selling their homes with a massive profit while moving on to ‘better’ areas to live!
