Right to Buy response: we need more social housing not less

Responding to the Tories’ plans to extend ‘right to buy’ to housing association homes, Left Unity’s Felicity Dowling said:

“At a time when when we desperately need more social housing, this policy is a disaster. It will take thousands of homes out of social ownership and put them into private hands.

“Within a few years these very same homes will be bought by speculators, then rented back to us by private landlords at sky-high rents. This will only cause further social cleansing and homelessness.

“We don’t need an extended right to buy, we need a ‘right to sell’ – taking homes back into council and social ownership.

“To meet housing demand we need to build a million sustainable, publicly owned homes, and keep them in public ownership.”

Felicity Dowling is available for interview. Contact press@leftunity.org

Notes for editors
Left Unity is the new party of the left in Britain. Co-founded by Ken Loach in 2013, it now has around 2,000 members.