Rearrange these words: than, never, better, late.
One of Margaret Thatcher's flagship policies is to be abolished in Wales by the end of the year: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...icies-12730129
One of the totemic policies of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain will be swept away in Wales by the end of 2017 following the publication today of a Bill to abolish tenants’ right to buy their council homes.
More than 139,000 housing units in Wales have been bought by tenants since 1980, when the then-Prime Minister launched her crusade to increase the number of home owners.
But opponents of the policy say it has reduced the availability of social housing and lengthened waiting lists for those who cannot afford to buy homes.
Already in four local authority areas in Wales – Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Anglesey and Flintshire – the right to buy not just council homes, but also houses and flats owned by housing associations, has been suspended under an earlier piece of Assembly legislation.
In November 2016 Cardiff council requested a similar suspension because of what council leader Phil Bale described as “critical housing need”.
The new Bill, however, will scrap the right to buy and associated other rights across the whole of Wales.
Following legal advice taken by the Welsh Government, existing tenants will have up to a year to make fresh applications to buy their homes after the Bill receives Royal Assent.
The gap is to minimise the possibility of a court challenge under human rights legislation.
The Welsh Government sees its proposal as a fair balance between the rights of existing tenants to exercise their current rights and the rights of future tenants who need social housing.
Currently, tenants who make an application to buy their homes receive a discount of £8,000 if they don’t sell it on for five years. Until July 2015 the discount was £16,000.
In introducing the Bill, the Welsh Government aims to protect the Welsh stock of social housing from further reduction, ensuring it is available to provide safe, secure and affordable housing for people who are unable to take advantage of the housing market to buy or rent a home.
To encourage the development of new social housing, the Bill, if passed by the Assembly, will provide that the Right to Buy and Right to Acquire will end for new homes two months after Royal Assent.
This, says the Welsh Government, will help encourage social landlords to build new homes in the knowledge that they will not be at risk of being sold after only a relatively short period.
According to the Welsh Government, the Bill complements other actions being taken by it to increase the supply of housing.
Ahead of the Bill’s introduction, Communities Secretary Carl Sargeant said: “Our social housing is a valuable resource, but it is under considerable pressure. The size of the stock has declined significantly since 1980 when the Right to Buy was introduced.
“The number of sales is equivalent to 45% of the social housing stock in 1981. This has resulted in people in housing need, many of whom are vulnerable, waiting longer to access a home they can afford.
“The Bill supports the Welsh Government’s wider aims of a more prosperous and fairer Wales, helping to tackle poverty by protecting our stock of social housing from further reduction.
“I recognise the proposal affects existing tenants and we will ensure tenants are made aware of the effect of the Bill in good time before abolition takes place.
“The Bill will require the Welsh Government to publish information, which social landlords in turn must provide to every affected tenant, within two months of the Bill receiving Royal Assent.
“We have set an ambitious target of creating 20,000 affordable homes in this term of government. Alongside social housing this will include schemes such as Help to Buy and Rent to Own to enable people on modest incomes to own their own homes.
“We are supporting low-cost home ownership and we are expanding the social housing stock. Abolishing the Right to Buy will complement these other actions we are taking in order to support people in housing need.”
Councillor Dyfed Edwards, the Welsh Local Government Association’s housing spokesman said: “At a time of acute shortages of social rented homes, and with many thousands of people currently on housing waiting lists, the proposal from the Welsh Government to abolish right to buy is a welcome step in tackling a growing problem in Wales.
“It is essential that people’s access is improved to good quality social rented housing in order to enhance people’s lives, and also to revitalise local communities.”
The Bill will, however, be opposed by the Welsh Conservatives, whose Shadow Housing Minister Mark Isherwood said last October when the Welsh Government signalled its intention to legislate in the area: “This crisis has been caused by Labour’s failure to build new affordable homes, not the right to buy, which has been emasculated under Labour and seen sales dwindle from the thousands to just a few hundred each year.
“Instead, Welsh Conservatives proposed to reform the right to buy, investing the proceeds of council sales in new social housing, thereby increasing housing supply and helping to tackle Labour’s housing supply crisis.”
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Originally Posted by Wales-Bales
yep he probably is.... a public sector type pension ha ha mate, what you will get out is in no way equivalent of what you have put in. Back in the real world - you would have to put in a hell of a lot more to get the same return as him.