Right to Buy (Hansard, 29 June 1994)

§ 3. Mr. Harry Greenway
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many homes have been sold under right-to-buy legislation in (a) Ealing borough and (b) the rest of the country; what plans he has to extend the right to buy; and if he will make a statement.

§ The Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. John Selwyn Gummer)
Public sector landlords in England have sold about 1.5 million homes since 1980. Some 1,166,000 of those were right-to-buy sales by local authorities, including around 6,000 sold by Ealing. We have no immediate plans to extend the right to buy further.

§ Mr. Greenway
Does my right hon. Friend agree that no council tenant in Ealing or in any other part of the country would have had the right to buy his or her home if the Labour party had had its way? The bitterness with which Labour opposed the right to buy had to be seen to be believed. Has not the time now come to make equal citizens of all tenants in the public sector, including housing association tenants? Has not the time come to extend the right to buy to them—whatever the Labour party says?

§ Mr. Gummer
It is interesting that the Labour party has opposed every single housing reform presented by the Government, then, when it has found that it is unpopular with the electorate, it has gradually had to give way. The fact is that there would be no right to buy if this Government had not been in power. The Labour party has no ideas about how to improve our housing stock.
On the two occasions on which the extension of the right to buy has been put before the Houses of Parliament, it has not been carried. There is now, of course, considerable support for house building by the private sector as well as by the housing associations, so the situation is rather different.

§ Mr. Khabra
During the last year of the Labour Government, 100,000 houses were built. Last year, only 1,000 houses were built. The housing associations cannot fill that gap. Is not it common sense for the Government to allow councils to replace those assets and to make a contribution towards the Government's so-called stated objective of reducing the number of families who suffer the hardships of overcrowding and homelessness?

§ Mr. Gummer
As the hon. Gentleman knows, the fact is that housing associations are making a major contribution. In the areas where local authorities have sensibly sold their entire stock to housing associations, those who live as tenants of housing associations find that the arrangements are very much better. I hope to see a further extension of that. The hon. Gentleman talks with expertise about the London borough of Ealing. There is no doubt whatever that the performance of the Conservatives in Ealing far outweighed that of the Labour council which we now, sadly, have.

§ Mr. Tracey
My right hon. Friend clearly recognises that there is a desire on the part of housing association tenants for the right to buy. May I press him a little further on a commitment by the Government to extending the right to buy to housing association tenants?

§ Mr. Gummer
My hon. Friend will agree that the situation has changed somewhat. Significant private investment is now taking place in housing associations which must make the situation rather different. It is a matter of fact that on the two occasions on which the other place was presented with the opportunity to extend the right to buy, it decided that it was not prepared to go along that route. However, I am always open to suggestions and I am happy to talk to my hon. Friend about the matter.