The end of Right to Buy in Scotland welcomed by housing bodies

The Right to Buy scheme in Scotland has officially ended after 30 years – a decision welcomed by housing bodies.

The Right to Buy scheme, which allowed tenants in social housing to buy their homes at discounted rates, was introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1980. Right to Buy in Scotland was established by the Tenants’ Rights, Etc. (Scotland) Act 1980.

In 2014, MSPs voted to end the measure due to concerns that the scheme had contributed to an acute shortage of social housing.

A total of 494,580 council and housing association homes were sold under the legislation.

The scheme, which officially ended yesterday (31 July 2016), is still operating in the rest of the UK, where sitting tenants can buy public-sector housing, often at a discounted price.

The Scottish Federaton of Housing Associations (SFHA) and the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers (ALACHO) had campaigned for the policy to be curbed or scrapped, with Shelter Scotland saying that for every three homes sold under the scheme, only one was built in replacement.

The SFHA said the end of the policy in Scotland “hasn’t come a moment too soon”.

SFHA chief executive Mary Taylor said: “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.”

Policy Manager of ALACHO, Tony Cain, said: “Ending the right to buy will allow social landlords to plan longer term, manage assets and income more effectively and most importantly to invest to increase the number of social rented homes for the first time since 1981.

“That means more long term jobs and apprenticeships to maintain our homes and more households taken out of housing need and living in warm, dry and genuinely affordable housing”.

According to the groups, some social landlords saw an increase in the number of applications from tenants to buy before Sunday’s deadline.

Shelter Scotland have said that at least 12,000 new affordable homes need to be built a year to meaningfully tackle Scotland’s housing crisis.

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