50 signatures reached
To: Rt Hon George Osborne MP and Rt Hon Greg Clark MP
There's a housing crisis!
I call upon you as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to scrap the proposed extension of the right to buy to tenants of registered providers of social housing (RPs).
I also urge you to scrap the proposal to reduce rents by 1% every year for four years.
I also urge you to scrap the proposal to reduce rents by 1% every year for four years.
Why is this important?
Am I crazy? Surely giving social housing tenants the right to buy their homes and reducing their rent by 1% every year for four years is good news. Don't be fooled!
In the short term these measures might seem advantageous to people living in social housing. In fact in the long term they pose a real threat to the very organisations that provide such housing and therefore to the tenants and future tenants. They also pose a threat to every taxpayer. Who will pay to pick up the pieces when housing associations (RPs) go under?
Once lost to a social housing landlord, rent money cannot be recovered. Social landlords will not benefit financially from the sell-off of their properties - people's homes - but will have insufficient surpluses with which to replace them with new housing. Many RPs will have to shelve indefinitely their plans to develop new housing. Much social housing is old and costly to maintain. RPs might also have drastically to curtail their plans to modernise these homes. If they're really strapped for cash, routine maintenance plans will also be adversely affected.
The knock-on effects of the Government's plans are serious and wide-ranging.
There is a housing crisis! This is not the time to be impoverishing the very organisations that could help to remedy that.
In the short term these measures might seem advantageous to people living in social housing. In fact in the long term they pose a real threat to the very organisations that provide such housing and therefore to the tenants and future tenants. They also pose a threat to every taxpayer. Who will pay to pick up the pieces when housing associations (RPs) go under?
Once lost to a social housing landlord, rent money cannot be recovered. Social landlords will not benefit financially from the sell-off of their properties - people's homes - but will have insufficient surpluses with which to replace them with new housing. Many RPs will have to shelve indefinitely their plans to develop new housing. Much social housing is old and costly to maintain. RPs might also have drastically to curtail their plans to modernise these homes. If they're really strapped for cash, routine maintenance plans will also be adversely affected.
The knock-on effects of the Government's plans are serious and wide-ranging.
There is a housing crisis! This is not the time to be impoverishing the very organisations that could help to remedy that.
How it will be delivered
Anything but a press conference!
