Boris Johnson has been criticised for trying to revive a flagship policy from Margaret Thatcher's time in Number 10.
The Prime Minister is understood to be planning a new Right to Buy Scheme for tenants renting from housing associations. According to the Telegraph, he asked officials to plan the policy in an aim to assist young people who are struggling to get onto the property ladder.
The proposal for renters to be able to purchase their social homes at a discounted price is not new, having been pioneered by Mrs Thatcher and first revived in David Cameron's 2015 Conservative manifesto, reports the Mirror. Mr Cameron's plan did not materialise but Mr Johnson stated that he would consider new pilots for the scheme in the run up to the 2019 general election.
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Now, just days before people go to the polls in local elections up and down the country, the Prime Minister is reportedly looking to revive the scheme. Voters head to the polls on Thursday, May 5 to elect 200 councils across Britain, in the PM's first electoral test since the Partygate scandal erupted.
Critics accused Mr Johnson of "talking up the policies of the past" to shift attention away from the growing Parliamentary sleaze row, following the resignation of Tory MP Neil Parish for watching porn in the Commons. The Right to Buy plan also comes as Mr Johnson's pledge to build 300,000 homes a year was under threat due to a ruling by the Government's environment watchdog.
Officials in the Levelling up department are reportedly “urgently investigating” how to fight the ban on housebuilding imposed by Natural England last month which now affects 42 local authority areas. Up to 100,000 new homes have been put on hold by the moratorium that affects large parts of Norfolk, Hampshire, Devon and the northeast, according to the Times.
Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "This is desperate stuff from a tired government, repackaging a plan from 2015. Millions of families in the private rented sector with low savings and facing sky high-costs and rising bills, need far more ambitious plans to help them buy their own home. These proposals would worsen the shortage of affordable homes."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Christine Jardine accused the Prime Minister of “talking up policies of the past”. She said: "This is desperate stuff from Boris Johnson. "Instead of copying and pasting from old manifestos he should be helping families on the brink."
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “The hare-brained idea of extending Right-to-Buy to housing associations is the opposite of what the country needs. There could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes.
“The living cost crisis means more people are on the brink of homelessness than homeownership – nearly 34,000 households in England became homeless between October and December last year, more than 8,000 of them were families with children. Right to Buy has already torn a massive hole in our social housing stock as less than 5% of the homes sold off have ever been replaced. These half-baked plans have been tried before and they’ve failed.
"Over one million households are stuck on social housing waiting lists in England and, with every bill skyrocketing, the government should be building more social homes so we have more not less.”
Polly McKenzie, chief executive of think tank Demos, said: “All forms of Right to Buy privilege those who’ve got into social housing over those still renting in the private sector - even though those in the social sector are the ones with discounted rents and high security of tenure.
"That might make sense if people in social housing were structurally more deserving or more in need. But it’s much more complicated than that. New social housing tenants have often very high needs - that’s how they made it to the top of the epic waiting lists. So they are not going to be in a position to buy.”
A UK government spokesperson said: “We want everyone to be given the chance to own a home of their own, and we keep all options to increase home ownership under review.
“Recent statistics show that the annual number of first-time buyers is at a 20 year high, helped by our Help to Buy Scheme for first time buyers and Mortgage Guarantee Scheme to expand the availability of low deposit mortgages”
