Right to buy?
A little noticed aspect of the Budget was that the subsidies for Right to Buy purchasers are to be slashed and any money raised can be kept by the council to build new homes. Also the deputy PM is indicating that any new homes built will not be for sale at all.
Right to buy is therefore dying, it is already dead in Scotland and Wales, and about time. Of all the mad Thatcherite measures this was by far the dumbest. The collapse in house building since the 1980s is all almost totally down to the fact that councils just stopped building, the private sector totally failed to pick up the slack and hey presto we have fewer home owners, a mad rental sector, huge house prices and no where near enough properties. Combined with rampant Nimbyism the results have been a disaster, not least for productivity.
If people cannot afford to move around the country for the jobs they are best qualified for or even live where there are lots of jobs, then the economy does not do as well as it should.
That is what 40 years of Right to Buy has done, bye bye and good riddance.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
The right decision but without a reform of social housing provision will enough new homes be built? It’s a challenge to find the sites that can be delivered and the homes properly managed.
Damn right. Such a shitshow that we’re still suffering the effects of Maggie. The sooner every last single vestige is gone the better