22/01/2015

Welsh Govt To End Right-To-Buy Scheme

A Welsh council has suspended the right-to-buy scheme due to a local housing shortage.

The right-to-buy scheme allows social housing tenants to buy their home at a discounted price.

According to a report by the BBC, Carmarthenshire council will immediately suspend the scheme and that Welsh government will scrap it completely if Labour remains in power after the 2016 assembly election.

It is understood that the amounted discounted as part of the scheme was reduced from £24,000 to £16,000 in 2003, and the BBC claim that that will be reduced by half again by Welsh ministers.

Welsh housing minister Lesley Griffiths said that the move was being taken to protect social housing stock for "people who really need it", claiming that a number of properties bought through the scheme and ended up in the private rental sector.

(MH/IT)

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