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Media: Scottish Parliamentarians to scrap tenants right to purchase council housing

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  • 25-06-2014 9:13am
    #1
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,285 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Of interest to us here- as we've encountered identical problems- as we've sold off our stock of council properties, the social housing lists have grown and grown.......


    Link here


    The right of council tenants to buy their homes in Scotland is due to be abolished by the Scottish Parliament.

    The Conservatives will make a last-ditch attempt to block the move at Holyrood.

    But the government proposal is set to be backed by a large majority of MSPs.

    The right to buy was brought in across the UK by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1980, with almost half a million homes being sold under the system.

    Right to buy has driven-up home ownership in Scotland. But it has also contributed to an acute shortage of social housing.

    That is why the Scottish government has said it wanted to end the right in 2016.

    Housing Minister Margaret Burgess has already told Holyrood: "With 185,000 people on waiting lists for council and housing association houses, we can no longer afford to see the social sector lose out on badly needed homes."

    She added: "By ending right-to-buy in two years we will protect up to 15,500 social houses from sale over a 10-year period and safeguard social housing stock for future generations."

    But the Tories have said ministers are kicking the housing ladder away from those on modest incomes who aspire to home ownership.

    Housing spokesman Alex Johnstone said: "This move by the SNP is motivated by nothing more than political dogma and is nothing to do with protecting the housing stock.

    "Right-to-buy has been the most effective single measure to enable a whole generation on modest incomes to take pride in owning their own property."

    In a separate move, Labour is trying to make last-minute changes to the housing bill to cap rent rises.

    The Scottish government said it was keeping that issue under review.


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