Right to buy will drive home creation, insists communities minister
Every housing association property sold with the Conservatives' right-to-buy scheme will be replaced by a new build, minister Greg Clark has pledged.
In a move the government insists will allow tenants to fulfill their home-owning ambitions, around 1.3m people living in housing association homes will have the opportunity to buy their property.
Critics have warned the policy could exacerbate the housing crisis, as only 10% of homes are replaced with new social housing.
However, Clark, the new Communities and Local Government Secretary, insisted: "The policy we're announcing is very clear - every property that is sold will be replaced, one-for-one, so the housing stock is being expanded and people can achieve this aspiration that most of us want, to own our home."
"Just because you've signed a social tenancy doesn't mean you should be signing away your aspiration to own a home," he added.
Shadow housing minister Emma Reynolds warned that funding for the policy is yet to be set out and highlighted the widespread disapproval among housing experts.
Henry Geng, of the National Housing Federation, claimed that charities and independent organisations attempting to assist with the alleviation of the housing crisis would bear the brunt of the burden.
"There's 11 million private renters out there and there's also three million adult children living with their parents," he said.
"Giving the right to buy to housing associations is not going to help those people and actually if there's £4.5bn available which the government says there is, we shouldn't be spending that on giving large discounts of £100,00 to a privileged few, we should be actually be building more homes for all of the private rented sector and people who are living at home with their parents for example."