100 signatures reached
To: The MPs representing Brighton and Hove: Simon Kirby (Brighton Kemptown), Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion), Peter Kyle (Hove)
Say no to the forced sale of social housing in Brighton and Hove
Pledge to vote against any bill that forces Housing Associations to sell their housing stock
Why is this important?
The Conservative government have proposed a ‘Right to Buy’ bill which will force Housing Associations to sell off their housing stock at a discount. This policy would decimate the remaining provision of genuinely affordable social housing in the UK, and turn the housing crisis into a catastrophe.
Under the current Right to Buy scheme for council housing, only one new house is started for every nine sold. This has resulted in an abject lack of council housing, and forced 100,000s of people onto the private rented sector - sending rents soaring and fuelling the buy-to-let market. Many council tenants who buy their own home are at high risk of losing it due to being unable to afford mortgage repayments. It is estimated that one third of all ex-council homes are now owned by private landlords, who charge rents more than twice the council level.
Extending Right to Buy to housing association tenants will make things even worse. In order to recompense Housing Associations for the discounted price at which they are being forced to sell, the government is proposing that councils should be forced to sell off their ‘most expensive’ properties. In a city with inflated house prices such as Brighton and Hove, this could mean that every council house that becomes empty, and every new council house that is built, would be sold off. This would mean the end of all genuinely affordable housing in Brighton and Hove.
The Brighton Living Rent campaign call on the city’s MPs to pledge to vote against this catastrophic bill. Please sign below to show your support.
