20/08/2012

Councils Advised To Sell Most Expensive Homes

The Policy Exchange has said that councils should sell off their most expensive house and reinvest the money in building cheaper homes.

Selling top homes when they become vacant would raise £4.5bn a year, enough to build 80,000 to 170,000 new social homes, providing building jobs, the think tank said.

Adding that while social tenants deserve a roof over their heads, no one that is better than most people can afford.

Neil O'Brien, the think tank's director, told the BBC that social housing would still exist in very expensive areas under their proposal, but there would just be "less off it".

"The truth is I don't believe anybody has the right to live in the most expensive parts of town.

"People do have a right to get housed, just not in the very most expensive areas," he said.

(H)


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