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HOMES SALES U-TURN ON RIGHT-TO-BUY
Housing chiefs to spend £49m buying back 125 council homes
HOUSING chiefs this week announced plans to buy back 125 council homes sold under the right-to-buy scheme.
The £49 million Temp-to-Settled scheme will see family-sized flats on council estates bought back over the next two years.
Westminster council has told 6000 homeowners it will pay up to 20 times what they paid under right-to-buy.
Some of the flats were sold for as little as £20,000 in the late 1980s – meaning ex-council homeowners could rake in as much as £400,000 in the deal.
Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the opposition and author of The Westminster Whistleblowers: Shirley Porter, Homes for Votes and Scandal in Britain’s Rottenest Borough, said: “While we support the scheme, it is ironic we are paying significantly more money to buy back these homes than we got them for.”
The flats will be offered to the most n from page 1
needy of 3,000 families living in temporary accommodation. Temporary accommodation is rented by the council from the private sector at high rates.
Labour MP Karen Buck has said the council is sometimes paying up to £450 a week for flats on council estates.
By buying back the properties the council will save £4,000 a year for every property.
It expects to save £500,000 each year from their homelessness budget after the first 125 homes are brought.
Councillor Angela Harvey, lead member for housing, said: “Sadly, there is a huge shortage of affordable housing in Westminster and the city council is determined to take action to address this. Not only will Temp to Settled offer people who are excluded from the housing market due to cost of property the chance of home ownership, it will also free up critically needed social housing as people move up the housing ladder.”
The council is hoping to secure a deal with the Dolphin Square Foundation to increase the homes to 200. |
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