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.