Recommendation 4

We are concerned, however, about the Government’s decision to extend the statutory right to buy to all tenants of private social housing providers. The existing policy has reduced the number of homes available for social rent and increased the proportion of the social housing stock that is hard to maintain, as most of the properties bought have been in suburban areas, rather than inner-city areas, where much of the harder- to-maintain stock is concentrated. It is impossible to properly assess the proposal for extending the right, however, as it lacks detail. If it does amount to a genuine right to buy for tenants of private providers, it must surely amount to far greater central government interference in the sector than did the measures that prompted the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2015 to reclassify private providers as part of the public sector.

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