Tories to Revive Thatcher's 'Right to Buy' Homes Policy for Benefits Claimants
11:48 GMT 09.06.2022 (Updated: 15:19 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AP Photo / Kirsty Wigglesworth / Britain's Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove, right, and Britain's Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nadine Dorries arrive for a cabinet meeting
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The new housing plan will open up housing association properties — often reserved for the elderly, disabled or vulnerable — to be bought out by tenants. But in contrast with the Thatcherite polices of the 1980s, the government insists money will be ploughed back into building new council and 'affordable' housing.
The Conservatives have trailed a new version of Margaret Thatcher's "right to buy" housing policy — this time for those on state benefits.
The new policy was trailed by Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove on Thursday morning ahead of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's "reset" policy speech later designed to rally support from the Tory voter base.
Downing Street sources said the scheme would allow low-earners or the unemployed in rented accommodation to set aside some of their state housing benefit to save for a deposit on a property.
"We're looking specifically at a savings vehicle that people can use in order to save for that deposit," Gove told Sky News. Echoing late PM Thatcher, he added: "Home ownership is not just good for individuals, it's good for society overall."
"Home ownership is not just good for individuals, it's good for society overall".
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 9, 2022
The government is set to announce new measures to help people get on to the property ladder. The PM will set out plans during a speech later today.#KayBurley: https://t.co/mCWN8lFgb9
📺 Sky 501 pic.twitter.com/U6YsGEz9gF
"We want people to have a stake in the future, we want people to be able to invest in their own home, we want people to have somewhere safe and secure, warm and decent, in which they can raise their children," the minister said.
Gove also pledged that the government's previous promise to extend the right to buy for council tenants to housing association residents would be rolled out.
But in contrast to Thatcher's 80s policy of preventing local authorities re-investing money from council home sales in new housing stock, he said the government would make sure there was "a like-for-like, one-for-one replacement" for the properties sold off.
"Yesterday I introduced legislation into the House of Commons that means there will be a new levy on developers," Gove said. "That means that when new developments occur, when new homes are built for sale by the big housing companies, we will extract some of the money that they make and some of that money will be set aside explicitly to make sure that there is more affordable housing or council housing for people who need it."
But interviewers challenged Gove on the practicality of the plan, and why the 12 years of Conservative governments had failed to get more homes built to keep up with housing demand that has seen property prices rise faster than inflation or wages unchecked for years.
Talk TV's Julia Hartley-Brewer pointed out that social security benefits are not paid to anyone with savings of more than £16,000 — not enough for a 10 per cent deposit on an average-priced family home in most of the UK. Gove repeatedly evaded her question of how many people would be able to take advantage of the scheme.
The Government plans to let the low paid use housing benefits to pay mortgages.
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) June 9, 2022
Julia asks Housing Secretary Michael Gove SEVEN times: "How many people will this policy affect?"
Mr Gove: "A significant number...I don't know"
"It's a silly question."@JuliaHB1 | @michaelgove pic.twitter.com/X4SoHAzhKO
Gove replied that the government would ask mortgage lenders to offer higher loan-to-value ratios to help more people get on the "property ladder".
And BBC Radio Four Today Programme presenter Amol Rajan pressed the minister, saying: "You've been in power for 12 years — Why have you built so few homes?"
Gove replied that that 244,000 homes were under construction at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but "that progress was set back as a result of the pandemic". He stressed that the government was streamlining the planning process. However, building new tracts of homes around small towns and villages has proven unpopular with voters in Conservative-run councils in the south of England.
"There are challenges that flow from some of the steps that were taken in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and maybe some of these questions should have been addressed earlier," the minister admitted.
