AIBU to totally disagree with 'the right to buy'?

Obviously there's not a lot that's considered newsworthy by the DM, because he bought it in 2014, the article says.

It's actually Tory policy at the moment to make councils sell off property of high value, so it would actually be hypocritical for any Tory voter to say this is wrong.

I had a friend who lived in a council house -this when I was in my 30s. Her husband earned far more than my DH at the time. We were buying our house. We both had 2 children. They were able to buy their council house at a ridiculously low amount, which at the time meant that we were all subsidising these purchases.

They were able to pay off their house far sooner than we were able to. It didn't seem terribly fair to me, plus of course a decent home was taken off the social housing list.

No, not unreasonable. The money raised was not ploughed back into increasing housing stock and we now have the situation where private landlords are charging huge rents with very little alternative for those needing/ wanting to rent.

It would not be so bad if the money was used to build more houses but that never happened.

Labour party has said it will get rid of the right to buy if elected.

I agree with you both too. To me, it makes no sense to allow social housing to be sold off at often greatly reduced price.

Then what happens when more people need housing help - no houses left. Has always seemed a mad idea to me.

Right To Buy has recently been banned in Scotland in an effort to increase housing stock. www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/16342/rtb

I do understand the sentiment when RTB was initially brought in, with people paying out rent for 40 or 50 years and having nothing to show for it at the end plus the desire to improve your own home, which many councils banned back then.

But times have changed and I think it's right to call a halt to RTB.

Where we live, the families of residents have bought the properties in their parents' names, then sold them for many thousands when the parents popped their clogs.
Across from us, bought for £6,000, sold for £ 140,000.

I am not sure that renting a property is such a bad thing - it is the norm in many parts of Europe. It is only the "Englishman's home is his castle" mentality that makes us extol the virtues of home owning. Many young couples devote their lives to the purchase of a house when they might be better off renting.

There seemed to be no sound reasoning behind the right to buy policy other than it being a vote catcher for council house tenants who were laughing all the way to the bank.

Now these houses are being sold off at true market value, making a killing for their owners and removing the houses from the rental market when they are so badly needed.

A bad policy I think and based on the false premise that it is better to buy than to rent. We should have been encouraging responsible councils and housing associations to expand the rental market.

Smileless..no I don't think you are being unreasonable at all, I am in total agreement.I would go as far as to say that the "right to buy" scheme caused the lack of social housing. I was a great supporter and admirer of Mrs Thatcher (head now firmly below parapet, waiting for fallout) but this is one policy I did not agree with.
My own FIL "bought" his council house at a silly knock down price and then bragged about it unceasingly. I firmly believe that if people want to buy they should do so within the private sector and pay "the going rate" . Every council house bought is another one taken from housing stock. The younger generation have now become the renting generation, they can't get a mortgage and they can't get a council property. In effect they are trapped.