Jess my little house used to be owned by the local authority. It had been a tied cottage bequeathed to the city when the owner became mayor. Before I bought it, the previous owners - an elderly woman and her son - bought it under 'right to buy' at a very low price, then put it on the market five years later. I found out, after buying it, that they made a profit of £160,000! Not a bad return after five years, when the local authority had just completely renovated and refurbished it. What they actually paid equated to what had been spent on the structural work that had been done. The son became a joint tenant in order to buy the property with his mother. The profits bought them a nice bungalow in Wales. Great for them, I was happy with what I paid, but that was another house taken out of housing stock and not replaced.
Two years ago, the local authority sold its housing stock to housing associations for £1 each and the housing associations have systematically brought all the houses up to date with structural work, kitchens, bathrooms, new roofs, dropped pavements, driveways etc. i can imagine their response to the notion of so many tenants wanting to buy these properties for a drastically reduced price. Where are the replacement houses going to come from?
If there was a policy of one sold, one built, maybe it would be more ethical but how can a house sold at 30% of its market value fund this? All it's going to do is drag down the provision and quality of social housing - ready made slums yet again.