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Tory MP warns that Right to Buy could be extended to private tenants
A Tory MP has warned that Right to Buy could be extended to tenants of private landlords.
Mark Field said the policy, allowing tenants to buy homes at a discount, could soon be extended to private landlords.
The MP for the Cities of London and Westminster said: “It has already been mooted, I think, by the opposition benches that buy-to-let landlords should be forced to sell their homes to tenants.
“I think that would be entirely wrong, but I think it would probably be an extension of what we are proposing.”
Field was speaking in the House of Commons where the Housing and Planning Bill was debated yesterday.
A key part of the Bill is to extend Right to Buy to tenants of housing associations.
Field said that the policy would deplete housing stock, and end in properties being rented out to high earners.
He said: “That’s what has happened to many of the housing estates in my own constituency where essentially the second or third buyer after a right to buy has been, dare I say it, a well-paid yuppie.”
Field also said that extending Right to Buy to social housing tenants would be unfair to private tenants whose voices were not heard so loudly.
Property Industry Eye reported in September that Jeremy Corbyn wanted to suspend Right to Buy in some parts of London, and that he would extend it to the private rented sector if elected prime minister.
The Housing and Planning Bill yesterday got through its third reading in the Commons and now goes to the Lords. It will introduce bans for bad agents and landlords, and introduce fines of up to £30,000.
