New Voluntary Right to Buy scheme marks a first in history

For the first time in history, housing association tenants have become home owners.

A new Voluntary Right to Buy scheme is benefitting Sasha Dudley and partner Peter Croydon – two of the first tenants to get involved in one of the five associations piloting the new rights before the scheme goes nationwide.

The voluntary agreement between government and housing associations will give householders the chance to purchase their home with Right to Buy discounts, with the pilot being  used to develop the national scheme.

Once the new scheme is rolled out, each home sold will be replaced nationally with an additional new property increasing the overall supply of housing.

Recently, the government have doubled the housing budget, taking it up to £20M, setting an ambitious target for the future overall supply of housing.

A total of almost 800 applications have been submitted since the launch of the pilot scheme, by tenants who want to take the first steps towards owning their own home.

Housing and Planning Minister, Gavin Barwell, said: “Anyone who works hard and aspires to own their home should have that opportunity to do so.

“Right to Buy will help lots of people, like Sasha and Peter, go from being a tenant to homeowner.”

New homeowner Sasha Dudley said: “We are very excited to be homeowners. We’ve lived here for almost 20 years, close to family and friends – but now overnight home suddenly feels more important to us.”

Partner Peter Taylor added: “It’s always felt like a home but knowing that we now own the place gives that sense of security and ownership that wasn’t there before.

“Housing associations have an excellent record of building new homes and have delivered the majority of the 293,000 affordable homes built since 2010.”

Since 2010, more than 309,000 households have been helped into home ownership through government backed schemes. This totals 141 new homeowners a day and around 4,350 a month – many through the Right to Buy.

On top of this Britain is building again with more than 900,000 additional homes delivered.

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