Summary: We want to give housing association tenants the right to shared ownership of their property – allowing them to buy a share in their property and increase that share over time, all the way to full ownership.
- One of the biggest divides in our society is between those who can and cannot afford their own home. We want to close that opportunity gap and helping millions of people into home ownership.
- To help people and families on modest incomes living in housing association homes onto the housing ladder, we want to give them the right to shared ownership of their properties. This means they will have a right to buy a share of their home, as little as 10 per cent, and increase that share over time.
- Owning a home is not just about the four walls around you, it is about putting down roots, being part of a community and providing a safe and happy place for your family.
Background
- There are 2.6 million households, over 5 million people, in housing association homes who currently have no direct support into home ownership. Of these households, 64 per cent would like to buy their own home, but only 25 per cent expect to be able to do so.
Our solution
- We want to give housing association tenants the right to purchase an initial stake in their property, and then staircase into full ownership. This will be an automatic right for tenants in new housing association properties, and we will work with the sector on a voluntary basis to determine what offer they could make to tenants in their existing stock. This could help up to 2.6 million households get onto the housing ladder.
Conservative record
- We have announced a new model for shared ownership, making it easier for people to buy more of their own home and helping young people into the security of home ownership. We will establish a new national model for shared ownership which allows people to buy a proportion of their home while paying a subsidised rent on the rest – helping thousands of lower earners step onto the housing ladder.
Q: Do you accept the Right to Buy has hugely reduced the number of social rented homes?
Right to Buy has helped thousands of families make the dream of home ownership a reality. We know that 80 per cent of people of want to own their own home, and we will always be the party that supports them to do so. When Labour were last in Government, fewer than 3,000 council houses were built – we are the party actually taking action to increase the stock of council homes while helping more people onto the housing ladder.