January 03, 2012
Are you a council house tenant? Have you ever considered buying your home from the government? If you have, good news. This week, it was announced that the maximum discount available in right-to-buy schemes will increase to £50,000.
In certain parts of the country, discounts will be trebled, making it easier for some of the two million tenants of social housing in England to buy the property they live in.
Under the proposals, someone in the West Midlands who has been a council tenant for eight years on a household income of £20,000 could buy their £90,000 flat with a discount of £50,000, compared with the £26,000 discount now.
Whereas In London, a tenant for five years buying a flat worth £160,000 would also receive a discount of £50,000, three times the previous cap of £16,000.
According to housing minister Grant Shapps, restrictions on discounts over the past few years made right-to-buy “meaningless” in many places, resulting in just 3,700 sales last year compared with a peak of 84,000 a decade ago.
The increased discounts would help to stimulate house building, as every social housing home sold would be replaced by another one newly built, said Mr Shapps.
"The new homes for affordable rent will help get the nation building again, and help councils meet housing need," he added.
