I’m a bit behind Steve on catching up with the government’s new Right-to-Buy announcement. He’s right: there’s no serious provision for replacing the homes being sold. It’s just flogging off the community’s assets.
Here’s a worked example direct from the government’s consultation paper:
Don’t worry about most of it. Just look at the top-line: The sale of 16 homes for this council earns them £800,000.
Then look at the bottom line: that then turns into £92,000 to fund the replacement homes (after sales costs and the government taking a great big chunk back to the Treasury (£420,000)).
So the housing minister is going to build 16 affordable homes for £93,000 is he?
With that kind of financial wizardry, he should be in the Treasury – the deficit will be conjured away in no time.*
*I wondered if this could be part of his houseboat strategy, but it turns out you can’t even get 16 second-hand boats for that:
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