Tenants rush to buy homes in city after reforms

A city has seen a surge in council tenants asking to buy their homes since the government announced plans to reform the Right to Buy scheme.

Since the proposed changes were announced last month, 90 Lincoln council tenants have asked to buy their homes. The city council typically only receives 50 applications a year.

Labour's Budget saw plans unveiled to try and slow down sales and keep social housing in councils' hands.

Plans include tenants having to wait more than 10 years to buy their homes and those living in newly-built social homes may never be allowed to buy.

Darren Turner, director of housing and investment, said: “There has been a surge where people are concerned the unlimited timeframe would end, and would be less favourable than it is now.

“We’ve had around 100 applications [this financial year], but we don’t expect all of them to go through to completion.”

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the Lincoln Tenants Panel expressed concerns about how the council would build up its housing stock with little room on which to build homes.

Mr Turner said: “We typically plan to replace 50 homes per year.

“We believe after losing a lot in one lump there will be a short-term deficit, but it should smooth back out as fewer people apply in coming years.”

Mick Barber, who sits on the panel, added: “I’m glad we’ve got the right of first refusal for 10 years if the tenant decides to sell up.”

The Right to Buy scheme was introduced in 1980 by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government to allow people to buy their council homes.

Under Labour's new proposals, tenants may have to live in the home longer before they are eligible to buy it and the maximum discount on sales would be capped at £24,000, much lower than previous England-wide discount of up to £102,400.

Other measures include allowing councils to spend all of the money they get from a Right to Buy sale, rather than only half, on buying or building new social housing.

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