Let’s freeze right to buy, right now

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/18/right-to-buy-mixed-communities-social-housing

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As accusations are thrown around about Labour returning to the 1980s, we should not forget that the Tories are leading the way. Cameron’s and Osborne’s plan to extend right to buy and sell off even more of the UK’s social homes is, just like their attacks on welfare and their shrinking of the state, textbook Thatcherism.

The proposed extension of the policy under this government to include housing associations will leave the state bereft of homes that accommodate the millions of people - young and old, families, couples and single - who are currently priced out of the housing market.

Related: Why right to buy has been a definitive disaster | Owen Jones

When right to buy was first introduced, by Margaret Thatcher, the country’s social housing stock was severely depleted - 1.5 million homes were sold off. For every family that benefited, many more on the housing waiting list were denied a decent home. If we don’t act now, we’ll be falling for the same trap under Cameron – over 30 years later.

This time, however, the damage will be irreparable: another 850,000 social homes will be privatised at a time when 1.8 million people in England and Scotland are on a council waiting list. With the country in the grip of a housing crisis, we need to be building thousands more social homes again, not selling off the few we’ve got left.

That’s why I believe we need a complete freeze on right to buy. When the housing bill is put before parliament this autumn, I will be tabling an amendment proposing that right-to-buy sales should be restarted only once there are as many social homes in a particular area as there were when right to buy was first introduced. We have to replenish our country’s stock of social housing before selling off even more of it.

Reassurances about the replacement of homes sold under right to buy have been shown to be empty promises.

This isn’t unrealistic. As mayor of London, I would issue £10bn of London Housing Bonds to allow me to directly fund 30,000 new social homes. Local councils are also being innovative in finding ways to protect council homes. The London borough of Enfield, for example, has set up a private company called Housing Gateway to buy and own property on behalf of the council, allowing it to protect its dwindling housing stock from privatisation.

Right to buy is the vehicle for backdoor privatisation of social housing on a massive scale. New data published by Inside Housing magazine shows that 40% of the homes sold are now in the hands of private landlords. That means those who need a social home are instead forced to rent privately, with the result that across the UK, and particularly in London, rents get more and more unaffordable each year. There is no other area of policy where the state would give up to £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to individuals to make a personal profit.

Reassurances about the replacement of homes sold under right to buy have been shown, time and time again, to be empty promises – and they will be this time too. The Conservatives promised in 2011 that every home sold under right to buy would be replaced. Since then, 26,184 social rented homes have been sold through right to buy across England, and just 2,712 have been built to replace them.

Related: Why I would never buy my housing association home

The massive sell-off of social housing across the UK will lead to ghettoes of rich and poor, an end to the mixed communities we need. We’ve already seen this happen in cities such as Paris, where 80% of Parisians live outside of the city, the poorest living in the banlieues; It cannot be allowed to happen here.

Younger generations will be hit particularly hard. It is not the baby boomers who will suffer most from right to buy – those in older generations who wanted to do so already cashed in on the first round. Less lucky are their children and grandchildren, who now find themselves unable to afford rents in the same town as their parents, paying increasingly eye-watering private rents and extortionate amounts to commute in and out of cities across the country. We have to think about the next generation and their housing needs – we either act now to stop right to buy or leave little more than a depleted rump of social homes to the next generation.

That is why it’s not enough to campaign against the extension of right to buy, or to settle for a replacement of homes on a one-for-one basis. Too much damage has already been done. If we are to protect council homes and mixed communities in our towns and cities, it is time to end right to buy.