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Update: Compulsory Sale of High Value Council Housing (ARCH Member Survey) 25/06/2015

We'd like to thank all ARCH members who have completed our member survey on the impact of the proposals, announced in the Queens Speech. The proposal requires stock retained councils to sell off higher value council housing as it becomes vacant in order to fund the extension of the Right to Buy (RTB) to housing association tenants.

 

We've received a good response and are currently analysing the results in order to provide an evidence based response to the proposals, ensuring that the government are fully aware of the consequences of these proposals on the stock retained sector.

 

Since we launched the survey the NFA (National Federation of ALMOs) and CWAG (Councils With ALMOs Group) have asked if their members can participate in the survey. To accommodate this their request, we have extended the deadline for completion of the survey and circulated it to their members. We have also circulated the survey to the remaining stock-retaining authorities who are currently not ARCH members.

 

Once we've received all the surveys, we'll have the first comprehensive national picture of the impact of the government's proposals and the issues and concerns raised by the stock retaining sector.

 

The preliminary results of the survey show that a number of councils across the country will be adversely affected by the forced sale of so-called high value housing stock with some authorities having to sell over 40% of their annual turnover of vacant properties, leading to an inevitable increase in their housing waiting lists and the need for additional expenditure on temporary accommodation for homeless households.

 

Less than half of councils own and manage council housing and those stock retaining councils and rent payers are already funding RTB discounts for council tenants through their HRA Business Plans. If the RTB is to be extended to housing association tenants, council tenants shouldn't be asked to pay twice by compensating housing associations for the cost of RTB discounts for housing association tenants. These costs should be funded by the general taxpayer, or as local authorities are required to do, by the housing associations themselves.

 

The ARCH Executive Board will be considering the next steps in its lobbying strategy at the Board meeting on Monday 6 July. If any ARCH member has not returned their survey yet, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible before this date.

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