Home Ownership (Hansard, 24 March 2003)

§ Mr. McNulty

The Government continue to support a number of schemes which help both local authority and housing association tenants to purchase their social rented home or which free up social housing for re-letting to others in housing need by assisting tenants to buy an alternative home. These are described as followsAs announced in "Sustainable Communities: building for the future" on 5 February, the Housing Corporation is heading a Task Force to look at all the programmes that support sustainable home ownership. An announcement on the Task Force and the terms of reference is being made today. Existing schemes include the Right to Buy which enables secure tenants of local authorities to purchase their rented home with a discount. Secure tenants who have transferred with their homes from local authorities to housing associations have a 'preserved' Right to Buy. Eligible housing association tenants of properties built or acquired with public funds since 1 April 1997 may purchase their rented home with a discount through the Right to Acquire scheme. Some housing associations offer the voluntary purchase grant scheme. This enables tenants of older housing association properties to purchase their home with a discount at the discretion of their landlord. In addition, tenants of both local authorities and housing associations can benefit from the Homebuy equity loan and shared ownership (part buy/part rent) schemes. Both schemes are offered by housing associations and funded by the Housing Corporation, although local authorities do fund a few of these schemes. Cash Incentive Schemes are currently operated by some local housing authorities so they can give grants to their tenants to assist them in buying a property in the private sector. These schemes have the effect of releasing local authority accommodation for letting to those in housing need.