Cross-party London leaders warn government of new right to buy dangers

Even Boris Johnson has displayed carefully-phrased unease about the government’s pledge to extend the right to buy to housing association tenants. Now a trio of London borough leaders drawn from both major parties has written to the recently-appointed communities secretary Greg Clark warning him that the policy could do long term damage to the capital’s affordable housing supply, social character and economic strength.

The letter, sent last month, was written by Lewisham’s Labour mayor Sir Steve Bullock in his capacity as executive member for housing with London Councils, the body that represents the capital’s 33 local authorities, and co-signed by Haringey’s Labour leader Claire Kober and Ravi Govindia, Conservative leader of Wandsworth.

The three borough chiefs tell Clark that his forthcoming housing bill, which will contain the new right to buy measures, must help London and its councils to generate more homes in the city, including a net increase in “affordable” ones, contribute to sustaining its broad social mix and ensure that money raised from the sale of its affordable homes is reinvested in the capital to help it meet its growing housing need, rather than be exported elsewhere.

This expression of cross-party anxiety about extending right to buy and the forced sale of council housing to compensate for its loss should come as no surprise to the new communities secretary. From the moment David Cameron announced the policy during the general election campaign, an array of housing experts and number crunchers raised grave concerns about its likely impacts and cast doubt on its finances. Bullock, Kober and Govindia address these issues directly:

As noted by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the proposals mean that local authorities will be required to support replacement homes with substantially less capital than the value of the homes they are replacing. It is likely to be extremely challenging to find sufficient finance to make up the difference, given current borrowing constraints. In practice, the policy is likely to mean that affordable housing in certain parts of the city will become unviable. This would have implications for London’s social mix, which is part of its success as a thriving city.

They urge Clark to ensure that this does not occur. The letter has been copied to Johnson and also to the all-party parliamentary group for London, which is co-chaired by Labour shadow local government minister and Croydon North MP Steve Reed. His response to the letter is blunt:

The Tories’ plan to seize and sell off housing association homes will make the housing crisis worse. It will lead to fewer affordable homes and there is no plan for replacing those sold off. The secretary of state must sit down with London council leaders and engage with them constructively - they have legitimate concerns and he must take his fingers out of his ears and listen.

Fair comment, though, given how duff and destructive this policy is, who could blame Clark if he preferred to run and hide?