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Here in the U.K. our right-wing government are planning re-introduce a scheme whereby those in government-owned social housing have the right to buy the propert

Here in the U.K. our right-wing government are planning re-introduce a scheme whereby those in government-owned social housing have the right to buy the property cheaply after a set period. This has always been a very controversial idea: it does increase home-ownership rates fantastically, especially in poor areas, but it also destroys the social housing programme (an attractive outcome to the nasty British right). Rent limits, related to local earnings, are one way to increase home-ownership by making landlording less profitable. Our new opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, goes further and suggests we should actually extend this "right-to-buy" idea into the private sector. I only just discovered the idea this morning and I think it's pretty interesting.

makomk 11y ago
They're doing more than that. People in government-owned social housing have had the right to buy the property cheap for about three and a half decades now in the UK, thanks to the previous right-wing government, and it's already destroyed that social housing program. In the long term, most of the houses ended up in the hands of private landlords, including government ministers. Some of them were even bought up directly by investors through agreements that made use of loopholes in the right-to-buy rules The current government is extending this to housing association homes, which are owned and let by private non-government charitable organisations. They're now forced to sell their homes off, and local councils are forced to subsidise this by selling off yet more of their housing stock.
TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago
You say "nasty right" then go on to appear to support the idea of forcing property owners to sell. Nasty left! I'm only half joking. P.J. O'rourke's has a chapter called 'Why I'm Right' in his book 'Don't Vote! It just encourages the Bastards', I found it helped with a similar attitude I used to have.
- bjackman 11y ago
  I do indeed. We have a problem in this country; there is a shortage of homes, so being a landlord is extremely profitable, so house prices are astronomical and its very difficult to get on the ladder.. leading to all the homes being concentrated in the hands of a few rich people. I want to see that trend reversed and homes distributed more evenly. Still though, it's a pretty extreme manoeuvre, I'd like to read an expert's analysis of the idea.

makomk 11y ago

They're doing more than that. People in government-owned social housing have had the right to buy the property cheap for about three and a half decades now in the UK, thanks to the previous right-wing government, and it's already destroyed that social housing program. In the long term, most of the houses ended up in the hands of private landlords, including government ministers. Some of them were even bought up directly by investors through agreements that made use of loopholes in the right-to-buy rules The current government is extending this to housing association homes, which are owned and let by private non-government charitable organisations. They're now forced to sell their homes off, and local councils are forced to subsidise this by selling off yet more of their housing stock.

TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago

You say "nasty right" then go on to appear to support the idea of forcing property owners to sell. Nasty left! I'm only half joking. P.J. O'rourke's has a chapter called 'Why I'm Right' in his book 'Don't Vote! It just encourages the Bastards', I found it helped with a similar attitude I used to have.

bjackman 11y ago
I do indeed. We have a problem in this country; there is a shortage of homes, so being a landlord is extremely profitable, so house prices are astronomical and its very difficult to get on the ladder.. leading to all the homes being concentrated in the hands of a few rich people. I want to see that trend reversed and homes distributed more evenly. Still though, it's a pretty extreme manoeuvre, I'd like to read an expert's analysis of the idea.