Conservative attempt to delay Right to Buy ban rejected

Conservative attempts to delay the scrapping of tenants' right to buy council homes in Wales have failed.

Tory AMs argued tenants should have at least two years to apply to buy their homes after the new law takes effect, not the year ministers have planned.

But all amendments to the bill proposed were rejected in the Senedd.

The final vote on the legislation is due to take place next Tuesday, with the ban expected to come into force before the 2021 assembly election.

Some 139,000 council and housing association homes in Wales have been sold since Right to Buy was introduced in 1980 under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government.

The social housing stock in Wales has reduced by 45% since then - Labour promised to end the policy at the 2016 assembly election to help ease housing shortages.

On Tuesday, Conservative housing spokesman David Melding warned when tenants discover they will be losing the chance to buy their property it will "land like a bombshell on the mats of some people".

Giving people a year to start the process of buying their home was not enough, he said.

"A two-year period will provide reassurance to tenants that they still have a significant amount of time left should they wish to proceed of their homes," Mr Melding argued.

It would also "dampen any expected spike in sales", he said.

But Housing Minister Rebecca Evans told AMs a 12-month period "struck the right balance" and was "fair and reasonable".

"It gives tenants sufficient time to take proper legal and financial advice on the implications of home ownership," she said.

Right to Buy has already been suspended in Anglesey, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Swansea under existing powers.