Cameron pledges 'housing revolution'
Thursday, 17 August 2006 12:00 AM
David Cameron has promised to extend the right to buy to create a "housing revolution".
Addressing a summit on first time buyers, the Conservative leader returned to one of Margaret Thatcher's key policies and pledged to help everybody own their own home.
He said council and housing association tenants should be able to convert their rent payments into mortgage payments enabling them, over time, to buy their own property.
"In this way we can create a whole new generation of homeowners, we can
take that revolution all the way," Mr Cameron declared.
However, housing minister Baroness Andrews dismissed the proposals as "nothing but a muddle", saying they failed to address the key problems in the housing market.
"They do nothing to increase our housing stock or meet housing shortages, as he himself recognises. They do nothing for the thousands of first-time buyers desperate to get into the housing market," she warned.
Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Dan Rogerson pointed out that extending the right to buy - which was introduced by Mrs Thatcher under the 1980 Housing Act - would only diminish the supply of social housing further.
"We need to give communities the power to come up with innovative solutions to their housing problems, not just recycle old Thatcherite policies," he said.
Elsewhere, Mr Cameron promised to open up existing shared ownership schemes to a wider audience - currently only a small number of state sector workers can benefit from the policy, which allows tenants to buy a stake in a property.
And he vowed to continue fighting against home information packs (Hips), which all sellers must prepare before putting their home on the market. The Tories argue the packs would only add to the already high cost of a flat or house.
"There is a huge gap opening up in our country, between those who have achieved the dream of owning a flat or a home, and those who, although they are working and striving and earning, can't see how they are going to be able to achieve that dream," he said.
Under the rent-to-own programme, "millions of people would be able to own their own flat, own their home", Mr Cameron argued.
In other measures, the Tory leader pledged to ensure more new homes were suitable for first time buyers and families - which meant changing planning rules to allow new houses to have gardens and parking spaces.
"People know there is a need for new homes.but nor do they want to be overwhelmed by a rash of ugly, insensitive developments built on the back of some bogus consultation," he said, referring to the recent Barker review.
Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), welcomed the comments, saying: "It is obvious that there are real problems with the planning structure that have to be addressed in order to balance supply and consequently control the wider housing market."
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