Right to Buy row erupts over whether housing scheme will be scrapped as Labour accused of ‘despising aspiration’
ANGELA Rayner has been accused of “despising aspiration” as Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme faces a shake-up, a Tory MP says.
The Deputy Prime Minister, who benefited herself from the policy, is understood to be considering changes after pressure from councils to reduce its cost.
The scheme allows council tenants to buy their homes from their local authority at a discounted rate on the market value.
But Downing Street quickly stepped in to defuse the row saying the scheme is an important way to getting on the property ladder.
It came after Tory MP Joy Morrissey respond to reports of changes to the scheme saying it showed “hypocrisy”.
Rayner herself used the scheme to but her council house in Stockport, Greater Manchester, back in 2007 for £79,000 benefiting from a 25 per cent discount.
She said: “Right to Buy has transformed lives by bringing home ownership to well over 2 million people.
“The hypocrisy of even considering removing that opportunity from others when you’ve benefitted yourself says a great deal about the values of this Government. They despise aspiration.”
But Number 10 said: “Right to buy remains an important route to owning home.”
When asked if reports suggesting it could be scrapped were wrong, they said: “Correct”.
Rayner last month met town hall bosses to discuss housing reforms.
More than 100 of them calling for the scheme to come to to an end, a report published this week revealed.
A study commissioned by Southwark council said the policy was helping to burn a “£2.2 billion hole” in local authority accounts.
A government spokesman said: “We don’t recognise these claims and this is not something that the Government is considering.
“Right to Buy remains an important route for council housing tenants to be able to buy their own home but it’s scandalous that only a third of council homes sold under the scheme have been replaced since 2012. That is why we are working at pace to reverse the continued decline of social rent homes.
“Increasing protections on newly-built social homes will be looked at as part of our wider review but there are no plans to abolish the Right to Buy scheme.”