Rooker review sparks right-to-buy surge

Right-to-buy applications increased dramatically over the summer after housing minister Lord Rooker announced an investigation into abuses of the scheme.

A Housing Today survey of 20 housing associations and councils in high-demand areas found the rise has had a nationwide effect, but that the South-east was hardest hit.

The rise was especially pronounced in August, traditionally one of the quieter months. Tenants would have been aware then of the review, being undertaken by Heriot-Watt University for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Walsall-based Beechdale Housing Association, for example, received 15 applications this August compared with only one for the same period last year (see graph). Local authorities including Brighton and Oxford have reported increases in application numbers of 25%-45% over the past six months.

The rise has been linked to comments Lord Rooker made in July likening right-to-buy sales to "losing a valuable resource down the plughole". A spokesperson for South Oxfordshire Housing Association said: "We have had lots of people phoning up this month asking for application forms and asking whether right to buy has stopped."

However, others attributed the upsurge in applications to mortgage companies targeting those tenants eligible to exercise their right to buy. In Canterbury, the current annual rate of completed right-to-buy sales is more than double what it was last year. A council spokesman said: "Loan companies are targeting the area where house prices have been going up. It raises the question of whether people can really afford to buy their homes or whether they are overstretching themselves, believing they have to get in quickly before right to buy is taken away."

Mushtaq Khan, head of housing strategy at Trafford council, where right-to-buy sales are up around 20% on last year, said the increases were causing significant damage to affordable housing levels in the area.

Trafford council plans to stage its own inquiry into the right to buy next month, with the suspension of the right in high-demand areas being considered.