May pledges right-to-buy plan to boost UK social housing

london — UK Prime Minister Theresa May pledged a new rightto-buy programme for social housing in an effort to boost homebuilding by local authorities and help alleviate a growing shortage of low-cost housing.

Councils and housing associations will be offered government funding to build homes along with permitting help from the Homes and Communities Agency, the Conservatives said in a statement on Saturday. The programme will require a proportion of the homes to be sold after a set period of 10 to 15 years. Existing tenants at that point will have the first right to buy the properties, which will otherwise be sold to private or institutional investors.

“Too many ordinary working families are stuck on council waiting lists, facing unaffordable rents and struggling to save for that first deposit,” May said in the statement. “That’s why we will fix the broken housing market and support local authorities

Theresa May, UK Prime Minister

and housing associations to build a new generation of council homes right across the country.”

Britain’s housing shortage has pushed up rents and house prices across the country. By focusing on the need for social housing, and proposing a plan likely to benefit areas with shortages such as Birmingham and Manchester, May is continuing her party’s push to win over traditional opposition in Labour heartlands. Local elections earlier this month suggested May will significantly increase her majority in the June 8 election, as surveys of likely voters have also shown. — Bloomberg

We will fix the broken housing market and support local authorities and housing associations to build a new generation of council homes right across the country