Friday, May 5, 2017
Literally taking bundles of £50 notes and burning them
Town halls buy back Right-to-Buy homes
"Councils have spent millions buying back homes they sold at a discount under Right-to-Buy laws to meet housing shortages. Islington council spent more than £6.2m buying back homes it sold to people for less than £1.3m, a Freedom of Information request reveals." Can hardly be called privatisation if *Assets sold at huge discount *Continuing public subsidies in perpetuity. E.g. Housing Benefit for RtB BtL operators. Central government funding for local services not covered by council tax.
Posted by mombers @ 08:11 AM (4609 views)
5 thoughts on “Literally taking bundles of £50 notes and burning them”
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cyril says:
Council housing has long been the economics of the madhouse. It started as a good idea to build cheap houses to rent out cheaply, then it became a cash machine for dodgy builders (in the 60’s), then central government in the 80s/90s, then the buy to let brigade (00s-present). All taxpayer funded via direct subsidies taxes or benefits. Kerching!
It’s a total nonsense in this so called age of austerity for councils to be buying street properties to rent out but it’is still cheaper than putting people in bed and breakfast, which is even more ridiculous. Here’s a good policy for J Corbyn – allow councils to buy back ex council houses for the price they were sold for in the first place (indexed for RPI inflation of course)…
khards says:
What’s to stop future tenants buying these back?
mombers says:
I heard of some councils enveloping any new housing in companies so they are no longer subject to Right To Buy. Now imagine if councils just built all of the new homes in their borough and charged market rent? Would raise more than enough revenue to fund all operations. Replicate nationwide and you could have a Hong Kong or Singapore style system with ultra low taxes on labour and capital…
nickb says:
Cyril,
Nice idea but this would entail use of compulsory purhcase orders and possibly evictions since nobody would want to sell at that price – many of the current occupants or BTL types would then be in negative equity. Do you think that could work given the political resistance it would trigger?
N
sneaker says:
Love it. Government sells the lows and buys the highs. And somehow presents this as sensible.