Council House Sales (Hansard, 10 November 1982)

§ 4. Mr. Timothy Smith
asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what proposals he has further to encourage the sale of council houses.

§ The Minister for Housing and Construction (Mr. John Stanley)
The Housing and Building Control Bill, published last Friday, will extend the right to buy to council tenants whose dwellings are on leasehold land and to certain tenants of charitable housing associations.
It will also further extend the right to buy by giving tenants who are not able to afford to buy outright the right to buy on a shared ownership basis instead. In addition, the Bill will remove certain obstacles which some councils have used to obstruct and dissuade tenants from exercising their legal right to buy their homes.

§ Mr. Smith
That will be a welcome extension to the right-to-buy provisions. Does my hon. Friend agree that, bearing in mind the substantial reduction in mortgage interest rates that has taken place this year and the fact that there is more to come on Friday, this is a propitious moment to draw to the attention of council tenants their right to buy under the Housing Act 1980?

§ Mr. Stanley
My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the success of the Government's policy in reducing inflation, interest rates and mortgage rates. He is also right to say that the weekly cost to many council tenants of buying their homes on a mortgage will be no more, and in some cases will be even less, than the cost of continuing to pay rent.

§ Mr. Allan Roberts
Will the Minister explain whether, under the shared ownership proposals for council houses, a tenant may join other members of his family resident in the dwelling to buy part of the house? If they can do that, in much the same way as they can buy the whole of the house jointly under the Housing Act 1980, what will happen if there is a dispute while half the house is owned and half is rented? Will the person who owns half of the house be able to ban a member of his family from that part of the house and make him live in the other half?

§ Mr. Stanley
The rules on buying part of the equity on a shared ownership basis are the same as those on buying outright under the right-to-buy provisions. The provisions have applied satisfactorily in many voluntary sales under shared ownership arrangements.