Voluntary right to buy: what’s new?

The briefing paper (Introducing a voluntary Right to Buy for housing association tenants in England) sets out the story so far, summarises the findings of the first VRTB Pilot research (see our briefing here) and confirms the latest position.

Extended VRTB Pilot

The Government announced in the November 2016 Autumn Statement that there would be a “large-scale regional pilot of the Right to Buy for housing association tenants”. This extended pilot is expected to assist over 3,000 tenants into home ownership.

The second pilot will test one-for-one replacement and portability: two features of the VRTB agreement that the first Pilot didn’t test.

On 8 March 2017, the then Housing Minister, Gavin Barwell, confirmed that he was working with the National Housing Federation (NHF) to “identify the most effective location or locations for the regional pilots” and that he hoped to announce a decision “shortly”.

We await further announcements to confirm when and where the second pilot will take place.

And what about the main scheme?

There is still no announcement from the Government on the roll out of the main VRTB scheme.  Inside Housing previously reported that the Government had not requested any high-value asset payments from local authorities, suggesting that the VRTB will not be rolled out until at least April 2018.

Keep watching this space.

If you would like more information on the background to the VRTB, the current position and pilots, please contact Emma Holmes or Jonathan Cox

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