Property companies that offer windfalls to people who sell them their ex-council houses could face an advertising crackdown, housing minister Lord Rooker has hinted.
The bombardment of tenants with leaflets and newspaper advertising has so far been allowed to proceed unfettered, even though the government estimates the right to buy has cost English councils more than 2.1 million properties since 1980.

The companies give sellers a bonus when they buy the properties, often below market prices. They then sell or lease them at market rates for a large profit.

At an Empty Homes Agency conference on Friday, Rooker said: "Research is under way into misuses of right-to-buy adverts. We will address this but I am not in a position to say what the conclusion will be."

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has commissioned Heriot-Watt University to examine right-to-buy abuses. Its conclusions will form part of the government's Communities Plan announcement in January.

n At the same conference, Rooker also revealed he would issue a consultation paper on compulsory leasing of empty properties in the New Year.

Under the scheme, councils could take over privately owned vacant homes and lease them to people on their housing waiting lists.

Empty Homes Agency chief executive Jonathan Ellis welcomed the move. But Martin Green, head of home ownership at Camden council, thought compulsory leasing was unlikely to bring all empty homes back into use because of structural problems.

Source

Housing Today