A Conservative MP believes that the Right to Buy scheme may be extended to private tenants in the near future.
Right to Buy Could be Extended to Private Tenants
Mark Field, the MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, says the policy that allows tenants to buy their homes at a discount could soon be extended to those living in properties provided by private landlords.
Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, where the Housing and Planning Bill was being debated, Field stated: “It has already been mooted, I think, by the opposition benches that buy-to-let landlords should be forced to sell their homes to tenants.
“I think that would be entirely wrong, but I think it would probably be an extension of what we are proposing.”
A key measure of the Housing and Planning Bill is to extend Right to Buy to housing association tenants.
Field believes the policy would reduce housing stock and result in properties being rented out to high earners.
He observed: “That’s what has happened to many of the housing estates in my own constituency, where essentially, the second or third buyer after a Right to Buy has been, dare I say it, a well-paid yuppie.”1
Field added that extending Right to Buy to social housing tenants would be unfair on private renters, whose voices are not heard so loudly.
Yesterday, the Housing and Planning Bill made it through its third reading in the House of Common and is now due to go to the House of Lords.
Alongside the extension to the Right to Buy scheme, it will introduce banning orders on landlords and letting agents, and implement fines of up to £30,000 for rogue landlords or agents.
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1 http://markfieldmp.com/news-a-articles/housing-and-planning-bill/