Angela Rayner is she in favour of protecting council homes

[Eric Cartman]

I agree it doesn't look good, but my parents had the chance of buying the council house they were renting back in the mid 70s (before Thatcher became Prime Minister) and paid what always struck me as a bargain price for it. The house was left to me, my brother and sister when my parents died and in 2018 we sold it for what was about twenty five times more than what my parents paid for it. Maybe, I'm being stupid here, but if you're saying Angela Raynor was wrong for selling the house at a profit some years after she bought it, were my siblings and I wrong for selling the house left to us for what the market deemed was a fair price?

When my nan died my dad was given the opportunity to buy her council flat in London and refused because he hates the policy/saw it as highly damaging. Ultimately this has cost us hundreds of thousands and I imagine my sister's are deep down a bit peeved but over time my respect for that decision has grown and grown. It's a fair bit different to your situation as none of us would have lived in it, it would have only been an investment vehicle but I suppose the point is, if my dad can prioritise principles over wealth then I'd expect politicians to also.

Obviously the net effect is that someone else probably bought it and made a mint on it so taking a principled stance doesn't actually achieve anything in reality.

[pipster]

When my nan died my dad was given the opportunity to buy her council flat in London and refused because he hates the policy/saw it as highly damaging. Ultimately this has cost us hundreds of thousands and I imagine my sister's are deep down a bit peeved but over time my respect for that decision has grown and grown. It's a fair bit different to your situation as none of us would have lived in it, it would have only been an investment vehicle but I suppose the point is, if my dad can prioritise principles over wealth then I'd expect politicians to also.

Obviously the net effect is that someone else probably bought it and made a mint on it so taking a principled stance doesn't actually achieve anything in reality.

The flip side to that is - your Dad could have bought and the money that went to the council could have been used to build another flat somewhere else. Building costs havent gone up as much as the property cost - so they could have even been able to build 2 flats.
Until the population flattens out - we are going to have the same problem. UK population before Blair was around 60 million - it's now around 68-70 million depending on you you listen to.
Going back to Raynor - she is a fecking hypocrit, rides on the bandwagon of "Im one of you" when in reality she wants to be as far away from that as possible - until it comes to an election.

ps - did someone mention her boob job being done in a private hospital ?

[jon1959]

The flip side to that is - your Dad could have bought and the money that went to the council could have been used to build another flat somewhere else. Building costs havent gone up as much as the property cost - so they could have even been able to build 2 flats.

What a load of ignorant cobblers!

Until the introduction of the Self Financing Housing Revenue Account in 2012 the government's housing subsidy rules effectively prevented any Council from using Right To Buy receipts to build replacement council housing.

Since then it has been possible - but still a proportion of the receipts had to be used to pay off historic debt.

In March last year the government made a big announcement that 100% of Right To Buy receipts could be used for Council new build - but didn't lift the cap that only 40% of development costs could be funded that way. Most Councils that were trying to build new homes were already at the 40% limit so the announcement made no practical difference.

The key fact remains what it has been since Thatcher massively expanded Right To Buy in 1980 - the capital receipt from sales is a fraction of the value of the property because of the discount. New build costs have always outstripped values even if they weren't discounted for Right To Buy sales.

The Councils that owned the Right To Buy property usually funded them with a 60 year loan from the Public Works Loan Board (finally abolished by the government in 2020 and absorbed into HM Treasury). Councils still had to carry on paying off the historic debt when their rental income stream had been stopped by the sale. The capital receipt - before 2012 - went towards that debt but very often - depending on values and age of the property - there remained a debt for other tenants to pay via their rents!

Angela Raynor does not come out of this well. Eric C's dad does.