Council Chair welcomes end of Right to Buy Council Houses in Highland

1st August 2016

As a result of changes to legislation, today (Monday 1 August), the "Right to Buy" has ended for all tenants, a move which has been welcomed by the Chair of Highland Council's Community Services.

The Council has faced a large increase in applications over the last 3 months as many tenants have applied to buy their home before the change in legislation took effect. The Council is currently dealing with over 150 applications received over the last 3 months compared to around 30 applications in the same period as last year.

Councillor Allan Henderson, Chair of the Community Services Committee said: "The Council welcomes the end of the Right to Buy as we believe this will safeguard social rented housing for future generations. It will allow us to concentrate on the important task of further increasing new council housing through our ambitious development programme."

"We will of course deal properly with all the applications that have been submitted before the cut- off date. However we would ask applicants to bear with us as we deal with the large number of applications received in the run up to the end of the scheme."

Pressured Area Status has applied in relation to Right to Buy in most of the Highlands. Under the legislation Councils have had the power to designate areas or types of house as pressured: where the need for housing is much greater than the housing available. In Highland pressured area status has applied to all areas except parts of Caithness. This means that, except for some parts of Caithness, people who took up their tenancy after 30 September 2012 do not have a Right to Buy.

15,000 social homes protected for the future.

Right to Buy, which allows tenants in social housing to buy their homes, ends 31st July 2016 in Scotland.

Between the years 1979-80 and 2014-15 a total of 494,580 council and housing association homes were sold under Right to Buy in Scotland - homes no longer available to later generations who wanted to rent in the social housing sector.

Ending Right to Buy will protect the housing stock that is available for social renting.

Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said:"The end of Right to Buy marks a major milestone in the Scottish Government's efforts to build a sustainable housing policy for the future.

“It is absolutely vital that people can access social housing when they need it most. Since Right to Buy was introduced in 1980, nearly half a million council and housing association homes have been sold to their tenants.

“By ending the Right to Buy we are protecting up to 15,500 social homes from sale over the next ten years and safeguarding this stock for future generations.

“The Scottish Government is doing everything possible to maximise our investment in housing and to deliver on our ambitious target of 50,000, affordable homes over the lifetime of this Parliament, including 35,000 social homes. But with thousands of people on waiting lists for council and housing association houses, it was only right for us to scrap this scheme as we could no longer afford to see the social sector lose out on badly needed homes.

“Giving everyone access to a good quality affordable home is a priority for this Government and we will continue to assist people into home ownership through a range of shared equity schemes including Help to Buy (Scotland) and Open Market Shared Equity to help thousands of households own their own homes."

Dr Mary Taylor CEO Scottish Federation of Housing Associations said:“SFHA is delighted that all forms of the right to buy policy in Scotland have now come to an end and this hasn't come a moment too soon. Right to buy has had its day and has no place in modern Scotland.

“SFHA and its members long campaigned for an end to RTB, and warmly welcomes the end of a policy which has led to a considerable reduction in the availability of truly affordable social rented homes and contributed to the growing intergenerational inequality in terms of access to affordable quality housing.

“Going forward, we have a chance in Scotland to adopt a housing policy that is focused on the supply of well-designed, energy efficient social rented homes that are truly affordable to people on low incomes.