This measure, which was intended to preserve affordable housing supply, was unfair and would be reversed if the Conservatives won the election, shadow secretary of state for the ODPM David Davis said.
Davis told delegates at the Conservative party conference on Tuesday: "Since Labour cut the discounts, the number of right to buy applications [in London] has plummeted. There's now barely more than one application a day for the whole of the largest city in Britain.
"Labour's politics of envy is shattering the hopes of hundreds of thousands of Londoners. We will give back to council tenants in London what is every other council tenant's birthright."
The Conservatives also repeated their intention, announced last year, to extend the right to buy to housing association tenants. This would prompt the sale of 30,000 housing association properties and fund the construction of 15,000 affordable homes, Davis said at the time.
Tony Newman, housing chair of the Association of London Government, said: "[the proposals are] ill-thought-out, ill-judged and, bluntly, wrong. We've got 54,000 people in temporary accommodation in London. We need to increase the supply of social housing. What the Tories propose is madness, frankly."
Davis also announced a review of local government finance, although he did not go into detail. Additionally, he told delegates that his party would continue to oppose the establishment of elected regional assemblies.
Also at the conference, shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin announced that the asylum system would be scrapped to make way for a tougher regime, including the slashing of quotas from 80,000 a year to 20,000 and processing applicants in a place "far, far away" – perhaps Morocco or Algeria, according to sources within the party.
This new system would save money that would be use to fund more police, Letwin said.
Source
Housing Today
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