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So, it is official the Right to Shared Ownership will be a condition for most new rental homes funded under the £12bn Affordable Homes Programme. Trailed by @Insidehousing in March, it promises to have huge impact on sector. Here's a thread on why (1/11) https://bit.ly/35jOYyT
Here are the basic details of the policy 
Anyone who has lived in social housing for 3 years, will now have the opportunity to buy part of their home (2/11)
Anyone who has lived in social housing for 3 years, will now have the opportunity to buy part of their home (2/11)
This option comes alongside reforms to shared ownership (details ) that will come in next year. Changes promise to shake-up the tenure, making it easier to become a shared owner and buy a bigger part of your home when you become a shared owner (3/11)
) that will come in next year. Changes promise to shake-up the tenure, making it easier to become a shared owner and buy a bigger part of your home when you become a shared owner (3/11)
There will be some types of homes that will be exempt from Right to Shared Ownership, such as council homes, supported housing and homes where the landlord is a co-operative - among others (4/11)
The right to shared ownership won’t necessarily be popular with the housing association sector. After the policy was mooted last October, there was a lot of criticism towards the plan. Most summed up in the piece below (5/11) https://bit.ly/35fZ6sD
How will this impact HAs ability to borrow? Assocs are able to borrow money at low rates thanks to having a dependable stream of income through social housing rents. Changes could have a huge impact. Some have already halted schemes in prep (6/11) https://bit.ly/3lXEjQh
Some in the sector have said that there are very few lenders that would be willing to give out loans if the security being offered had a high percentage of shared ownership (7/11)
Also likely to be changes in HA's development programmes. Many spent months drawing up plans to secure funding through Homes England’s Strategic Partnership Programme on the basis Right to Shared Ownership didn’t exist. This has now changed. (8/11) https://bit.ly/3i8fU8w
Will there be much take up? The best indicator of whether there is an appetite for this is the Voluntary Right to Buy pilot taking place in the Midlands. Despite much fanfare, the VRTB has yet to attract the numbers hoped for https://bit.ly/3hb4Whd (9/11)
There is also something similar to Right to Shared Ownership that already exists. Social HomeBuy which gives tenants an opportunity to buy a share of their house has been going for years….but has had little take up (10/11)
The announcement by the government, will no doubt have HA teams scrambling around today trying to understand exactly what this might mean for their organisation (11/11)
