“We have a housing crisis and a cost-of-living crisis. No matter how you look at these plans, they will nothing to help the fundamental problems households are currently facing,” she said. “What so many people desperately need – particularly the young, those with low incomes and many of our key workers – is a home that they can actually afford.
“That need can only be met through councils and housing associations building more affordable housing, investing in social rented housing and shared ownership. It certainly won’t come by selling off the family silver at a huge discount and disincentivising social landlords to build.
“Far from extending home ownership in the long term, we know that close to half of all the social housing that’s been sold off so far has ended up being rented out, and at much higher, profit-driven prices. We can be pretty sure that pattern will be repeated with this sell-off.
“I am also deeply concerned about exactly how the promised discounts will be funded within existing plans.”
“It’s a strategy that appears to rob Peter to pay Paul,” said Chloe Fletcher. “The experience in the council sector is that you cannot replace all homes like for like with the money from the sale and it permanently removes money from the social housing market that could have been used to build more homes for rent.
“The NFA and its members will continue to argue that the only way to put a decent home within the reach of everyone in this country is to focus on building a healthy mix of tenures across home-ownership, shared ownership and affordable rented homes with a significant increase in social rent homes.
“The current fixation with home ownership to the exclusion of every other kind of tenure is breaking the market. And it is inflicting untold suffering on a generation who simply want a place to call home that they can afford.”
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