Home Residential PropertyNew Build Councils will welcome new homes funding but do they have the expertise to build and manage

Councils will welcome new homes funding but do they have the expertise to build and manage

by Seamus Doherty Property Reporter
23rd Oct 24 3:40 pm

The Government is expected to announce a โ€˜revolutionโ€™ on council house building with ยฃ1 billion to fund tens of thousands of new local authority owned homes.

But tighter restrictions on right to buy are fundamental to this succeeding, and local authorities will need to rebuild the housing and development expertise lost in the 1980s and 90s.

Charlotte Cook, a partner at the social housing law firm Winckworth Sherwood said, โ€œThe Labour government is set to unleash in its October Budget a welcomed new wave of council house development. It is long overdue and of fundamental importance with the current temporary accommodation crisis facing councils. But it is not without its challenges.

โ€œLocal authorities have lost much of the expertise they once had when they built, owned and managed large property portfolios. That will need to be rediscovered and re-energised. Many local authorities do have development companies, and it would be sensible for the government to allow those to access any future funds.

โ€œMany local authorities are already actively buying back good quality homes that were sold under the right to buy. If this or future funding is used to accelerate this, there is the risk that local authorities may find themselves under fire for rewarding tenants twice โ€“ first under the right to buy discount and then buying homes back at much higher market value.

โ€œEither way, it will be vital that greater restrictions on right to buy are put in place. Right to buy has been enormously successful, enabling thousands of people, including Angela Raynor, to purchase their council home. But it has decimated local authority housing stock due to the restrictions on use of right to buy receipts to build new homes.

โ€œAngela Raynor will find it politically difficult to restrict right to buy when she has so publicly benefitted. The government will have to find a way to release local authority building and a commitment to keep those homes in the sector.โ€

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