Shelter Say 'Cancel RTB On New Tenancies'

The Right to Buy (RTB) should be scrapped for all new tenancies, according to housing charity, Shelter Scotland.

The charity is calling on the Scottish Government to be bolder in its reform of RTB by ending the policy for all new tenancies.

The policy, which allows social tenants to buy their rented home, often with substantial discounts, was introduced over 25 years ago under Mrs Thatcher's government.

It has meant the sale of nearly half a million public sector homes since then – while only around 42,000 houses have been built over the same period.

The Scottish Government has proposed ending the RTB for newly built social housing and for tenants getting a rented social home for the first time, or returning after a tenancy break. However, tenants with a current RTB would keep that right.

The charity argues that its proposals – contained in its submission to the current consultation on the upcoming Housing Bill – are much simpler and will make a bigger impact at a time when the need for affordable rented homes is so acute.

In addition, Shelter Scotland argues that decisions over 'pressured area status' should be devolved to local authorities and that the RTB should be suspended for all tenants in an area covered by this designation.

A recently released Shelter Scotland report on the housing crisis, Building Pressure, showed that social rented housing is at a 50-year low.

Graeme Brown, Director of Shelter Scotland, housing and homelessness charity, said: "Much of this decline can be attributed to the Right to Buy policy which has robbed communities of social housing that has often then been sold on the open market for ridiculous prices, particularly at the height of the housing market boom, instead of being re-let to those in housing need.

"But Right to Buy is not the only reason for a decline in housing.

"A failure to invest in housing by successive governments to help rebuild stock sold under Right to Buy has been a key factor in the lack of homes in the 21st century."

The charity's response to the Scottish Governments new housing bill consultation also argues that the Scottish Housing Regulator must continue to oversee local authority homelessness services.

(GK/BMcC)