Right-to-buy scare triggers panic buying of council homes

Plans to tighten right-to -buy regulations in Scotland have led to an upsurge in applications.

The rise has prompted fears that tenants are panic-buying their homes, reducing the supply of affordable housing for rent.

In Glasgow, the number of applications in the six months to the end of July was more than a fifth higher than the same six-month period last year.

Significant increases have also been reported in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

The boom in applications has been linked to next month's implementation of the 2001 Housing (Scotland) Act.

It means that after 30 September new tenants will have to wait five years before they have the right to buy. The law also caps the maximum discount available at £15,000.

A spokesman for the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland said: "People are scared. Nobody has made the position clear to them and many believe they will lose most of their discount if they don't exercise their right to buy quickly."

But contrary to public misconceptions, he said, the new restrictions will not extend to existing tenants, who will have their right to buy protected.

People are scared. Many believe they will lose most of their discount if they don’t use the right to buy quickly

CIH Scotland spokesman

The forthcoming stock transfer in Glasgow is thought to have added to confusion among tenants there and contributed to the city seeing the sharpest rise in applications.

With community housing associations taking over as landlord for more than 80,000 homes, some tenants appear to have lodged panic applications to buy their homes.

Meanwhile, there has been speculation that the Scottish Executive will refrain from using the new legislation to enforce a ban on the sale of council housing.

After September, the executive can designate "pressurized areas" where right-to-buy sales could be suspended for up to five years.

But ministers apparently believe that to do so would be politically damaging ahead of the Scottish parliamentary election next May.

The developments in Scotland will be watched closely from Westminster, where deputy prime minister John Prescott has launched an investigation into abuses of the right to buy.