Council hits out at ‘damaging’ Right to Buy as homes in Stirling Prize-winning scheme set for sale

The deputy leader of Norwich City Council has hit out at the government’s “incredibly damaging” Right to Buy (RTB) scheme after seven residents living in a Stirling-prize winning development expressed interest in buying their homes.

Architect Mikhail Riches won the prestigious architecture award five years ago for its Goldsmith Street scheme, a 100% social housing development for the council made up of 93 passivhaus homes.

Now, many of the tenants in the scheme are eligible to buy their home with a discount under RTB as they have been living in the property for more than three years, with seven wanting to do so.

Deputy council leader Beth Jones, in comments reported by the BBC, said: “I think it has an incredibly damaging effect.”

“I can understand why people might want to try to buy them, but it’s disappointing because we’ve got to invest in housing that’s affordable for residents in the city.”

“It’s a real challenge that makes it just that bit harder to meet that need for residents.”

The scheme in its current form allows social housing tenants to buy their homes with a discount of up to 70% of market value up to a limit of £96,000, or £127,900 in London.

RTB was originally introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s but was revived, with higher discounts, by the David Cameron-led coalition government in 2012.

Labour has pledged to keep the policy if elected but has said it will reduce the discounts to pre-2012 levels and make it easier for councils to build replacement homes.

More than 14,000 homes were sold under RTB last year, with more than two million sold since the original scheme’s introduction in 1981.

>>See also: DLUHC confirms end of policy enabling councils to keep 100% of RTB receipts

>>See also: Nandy on RTB: telling social tenants they can’t own their homes is “unacceptable”

Supporters of the scheme argue that giving social housing tenants the right to buy their homes helps increase social mobility by getting people on the housing ladder, but critics point out is has led to a loss of social homes for people on lower incomes.

The Cameron government pledged to replace each additional home sold on a one-for-one basis. However, the Local Government Association last month pointed to figures showing 120,000 homes were sold under the scheme since 2012 and only 44,000 replaced.