London borough's social housing sales top £14m

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Finance, Local Government

Hammersmith and Fulham Council has raised £14.4m from social housing sales so far this year.

The council has managed to sell-off 38 properties and two Right to Buys in 2012. The council claims that a number of the properties were "dilapidated" and "too expensive to bring back into use".

The amount of sales has already beaten last year's figures. In 2011, the council managed to sell 28 social homes plus three Right to Buys.

The council said: "The money received from the sales of these ‘expensive voids’ is used to part fund our capital works programme, which for this year totals £35million, as well as to fund the development of new affordable housing and regeneration. In addition,  we also use some of this money to start paying down our £200+million of housing debt as our housing budget (HRA) has become self financing as we no longer receive any additional funding from government."

In line with a recent Policy Exchange report that recommended selling-off expensive social housing, Hammersmith and Fulham councillor Andrew Johnson has endorsed the findings but has said that the proceeds should be used to boost affordable home ownership, not just social rent.
 
The Cabinet Member for Housing said: "Along with many others involved in housing within local government I read the recent Policy Exchange report entitled Ending Expensive Tenancies with great interest. Whilst I wholeheartedly support the notion that some social properties, which are deemed to be expensive, should be sold when they become void, perhaps the bigger question is what to do with the receipts generated.

"Policy Exchange proposes using them to create the biggest social house building programme since the 1970s. Yet is that the right approach? Well yes and no. Certainly within some parts of the country we do need more social housing, however, we also need more housing in general in a range of tenures. It really depends upon what your baseline starting point actually is. The average across England, based upon figures provided by Policy Exchange is 17.6%, whilst in Hammersmith & Fulham it’s nearly 33%.

"So if you’re starting from a high base do you really need to build nothing but social housing when the real demand is for housing in the middle? The answer is no you don’t, you need to consider how you use what you already have more effectively, whilst at the same time providing a greater range of options for those who wish to progress into other forms of rented accommodation or home ownership."