Almost 113,000 council houses could be sold off through the Government’s Right to Buy scheme, which will force councils to put their most valuable properties on the market when they become vacant, warns Shelter.
The money raised from the sales will be used to fund discounts of up to £100,000 for housing association tenants who wish to buy their homes.
The housing charity says the scheme is “potentially devastating”1.
It states that the London Borough of Camden will be one of the worst affected areas, with over 11,700 homes facing a forced sale, equivalent to around 50% of the total council housing stock in the area.
Kensington and Chelsea could be forced to sell a huge 97% of its total council housing, or more than 6,600 homes, once they become vacant.
Shelter also believes that the loss of council homes will not only be experienced in London; Cambridge could lose 46% of its total, or over 3,200 homes, and York could see 1,400 homes sold, or a fifth of its total stock.
Chief Executive of Shelter, Campbell Robb, says: “At a time when millions of families are struggling to find somewhere affordable to live, plans to sell off large swathes of the few genuinely affordable homes we have left is only going to make things worse.
“More and more families with barely a hope of ever affording a home of their own and who no longer have the option of social housing, will be forced into unstable and expensive private renting.”1
1 http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/shelter-says-scheme-could-see-113000-council-homes-sold-off/