New taskforce to tackle ‘beds in sheds’

Housing Minister Grant Shapps and Immigration Minister Damian Green have launched a new national taskforce to tackle the issue of 'beds in sheds'.

Thousands of sheds and outbuildings are rented out illegally, say ministers. The illegal structures, some dangerous and cramped, are offered by private landlords, often to illegal immigrants. BBC's Chris Rogers investigation in February 2012 found 'beds in sheds' are London's modern day slums.

The first in a series of cross-Whitehall summits with representatives from the police, the UK Border Agency and local government is being held today.

The taskforce will discuss:

• encouraging councils to make greater use of legal powers across planning, fire safety, housing and environmental health
• how to better measure the extent and nature of the problem
• how best to ensure councils and the police share the intelligence available and enforcement activity
• closer working with organisations such as the Indian High Commission to help those wanting to return home
• steps to prevent more 'beds in shed' from being created.

Last month Inside Housing reported that Communities Secretary Eric Pickles accused councils of lacking the ‘willpower’ to tackle the problem and that Grant Shapps met with local authorities to discuss the issue.

The London Fire Brigade in January 2012 said there is emerging evidence of a growth in ad-hoc 'back garden developments' which see sheds and other unsuitable buildings being used as accommodation.

Smiley rapper Shapps

Saturday's Guardian newspaper carried a substantial 2,000 word interview with housing minister Grant Shapps. The piece focuses on the man "all smiles and bonhomie" and his rapping skills rather than his policies. However, the minister reveals that when the government launches the promised consultation on its 'pay to stay' proposals, which would force high earning council tenants to pay a market rent, it is likely to set the threshold significantly lower than the £100,000 it has mentioned previously.

"We'll probably consult on £65,000 and £80,000. But I don't want to stop two teachers being able to decently live in council housing. We need to be very careful not to attack aspiration."

Shapps also gives his views on the recent controversy about Newham Council seeking to send tenants to Stoke and other parts of the country:

"My view is that it's unacceptable to say to families, we're going to move you 130 miles away without giving you a say. Some people might want to start a new life. Fine. But you don't do that behind their backs, writing to housing associations and setting it up. It's also borderline illegal. I'm absolutely clear that, given the housing cap of £21,000 – and in Newham it's something like £15,000, because it depends where you are – there are places available for rent, so why would you do this?"

Double-dip data pins problem on construction sector

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 25 April show a 0.2 per cent contraction in the economy, suggesting the UK has slipped back into recession for the first time since the 1970s.

Chancellor George Osborne called the figures "disappointing" and blamed both the European crisis and Britain's spending in the "good years".

A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, and ONS Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data point to poor construction output as the underlying cause. Figures show:

• the seasonally adjusted index of construction output decreased by 3.0 per cent in Q1 2012, following a decrease of 0.2 per cent in the previous quarter
• construction output decreased by 0.5 per cent between Q1 2011 and Q1 2012.

Commenting in a Guardian editorial piece an ONS spokesperson said, "The economy has recovered less than half the output lost during the recession in 2008 and 2009".

The construction sector responded rapidly to reports of another recession. Noble Francis, Economics Director of the Construction Products Association, called the contraction in GDP 'unsurprising' and went on to say:

"Given that independent economic analysis has shown clearly that for every £ spent in construction, £2.84 is generated for the wider economy, it is essential that government does its utmost to switch its current spending towards the more productive capital spending."

Brian Berry, Federation of Master Builders Chief Executive commented:

"It’s a sad fact that the building industry has been in recession for four years with little hope of any immediate recovery. Until we get builders building again the economy is not going to recover."

Some commentators disagree with the ONS's data. Writing on 'This is Money' Alex Brummer points to the Purchasing Managers Index which, 'showed a fairly strong recovery in March, climbing from 54.3 to 56.7.'

However Judy Lowe, deputy chairman of industry body CITB-ConstructionSkills suggests:

"While output is expected to increase in 2013 by 4 per cent, growth over the next five years is going to be slow and uneven."

Lower deposits for ‘boxed-in’ buyers

Housing minister Grant Shapps showed his populist streak again yesterday when he invented another new term for the media - the 'boxed-in generation' - to describe families who have outgrown their current mortgaged home and can't afford to move.

In a survey published in January 2012, Findaproperty.com found that 29 per cent of parents think their current home is too small to accommodate the size of their family, rising to 40 per cent where the parents were aged between 18 and 34.

Speaking at the Home Builders Federation (HBF) annual industry lunch, Shapps explained that the NewBuy Guarantee, which had its first sale this week, now offered help to these families.

An initiative between the HBF and Council of Mortgage Lenders launched last month with government backing, the NewBuy Guarantee gives buyers of new build property in England, constructed by a builder who is in the scheme, access to 90-95 per cent loan to value mortgages. This can reduce the deposit required on a £200,000 home  from £40,000 to £10,000. The scheme has backing for 100,000 buyers and homes up £500,000 can be covered.

London borough accused of ‘social cleansing’

The impact of the government's benefit cap hit the headlines today when details emerged of Newham Council's request to a housing association 160 miles away in Stoke to provide rented homes for families priced out of the east London borough.

Chief executive of supported housing provider Brighter Futures Gill Brown told the BBC's flagship radio news show Today:

"I think there is a real issue of social cleansing going on.

"We are very anxious about this letter which we believe signals the start of a movement which could see thousands of needy people dumped in Stoke with no proper plan for their support or their welfare."

Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales told the BBC that benefit cuts meant that people from wealthier parts of London were seeking homes in Newham, leading to a lack available and affordable homes for people on its waiting list. He said the council had written to 1,179 organisations across the country asking for help, and cited as a contributory factor the benefit changes that now limit Local Housing Allowance (LHA) to the level of the lowest 30 per cent of rents in an area, and plans to cap benefits from 2013.

Newham's letter asks providers to lease suitable homes from private landlords or lettings agencies and let them to homeless families nominated by Newham. The provider will receive direct payment from Newham of 90 per cent of the Local Housing Allowance, plus £60 a week.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps responded [4:15 into clip] that the housing benefit system, even after reform, is still very generous and that Newham were playing politics in the run up to local and mayoral elections. He claimed that over a thousand homes were available on the Rightmove website within a five mile radius of Newham, and that his guidance on rehousing of homeless families in the private rented sector made it clear that the welfare needs of the families must be taken into account.

The controversy raged throughout the day:

• The National Landlords Association told the Telegraph that there is a shortage of private rented homes in Newham which will only be exacerbated by the council's plans to introduce a borough wide landlord licensing scheme.
• The National Housing Federation observed that 'the Government's welfare cuts will increase the pressure on local authorities to seek accommodation for its homeless residents far further afield'.
• Sinead Butters, chair of the NASH group of housing associations in Staffordshire and chief executive of Aspire Housing, said “There will no doubt be stark choices ahead for both housing providers and tenants, but NASH feels very strongly that relocating those on housing benefits to already overstretched communities is not the solution."
• Shelter urged the Government to consider the damage inflicted on families by cuts to housing benefit.
• Shadow Housing Minister Jack Dromey told the Telegraph that up to 40,000 families could be forced to move costing the tax payer £240m.
• The Labour Party in Westminster revealed that the council is considering an offer from the Smart Housing Group to re-house dozens of homeless housing benefit claimants to Derby and Nottingham.

By the end of the afternoon Conservative Home had published a letter from Shapps to the BBC Director of News questioning whether Radio 4 were right to run the story in the period before the local and mayoral elections.

Treasury's tough new spending rules

In a speech yesterday to the Institute of Fiscal Affairs, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander revealed that government departments are being asked to identify a further 16bn of savings that they could make if new pressures emerge or new policies have to be funded before the end of this parliament.

Alexander insisted that the government is making good progress in tackling debt, stating that:

"even as we take the tough decisions to tackle that debt, we are making sure that it’s not the poor and vulnerable who are forced to carry the burden, and that those who have the most contribute the most."

But he pointed out that, with three years to go, very difficult decisions remain to be implemented - only 30 per cent of planned cuts have yet been delivered.

Departments have been asked to identify around 5 per cent of their resource budget that could be re-prioritised if new pressures emerge or new policies have to be funded, rather than relying on the the contingency reserve, which has been kept deliberately small.

The Treasury is also introducing a new requirement for departments to provide it with consistent monthly spending information, allowing departments "to build a shared understanding of where the risks lie and how they are managed, as and when they arise".
And even as we take the tough decisions to tackle that debt, we are making sure that it’s not the poor and vulnerable who are forced to carry the burden, and that those who have the most contribute the most.

Letting to LHA tenants is 'unaffordable'

The National Landlords Association has published survey results stating that more than half of private landlords can no longer 'afford' to rent to housing benefit tenants because of cuts to the local housing allowance (LHA).

The survey showed 53 per cent of landlords believe LHA cuts have made it unaffordable to rent to tenants on benefits.

Over two thirds of its survey respondents said they can’t see themselves letting to LHA tenants in 2015.

David Salusbury, Chairman, National Landlords Association, commented:

"In view of the pressures on housing, the private-rented sector will inevitably play an increasingly important role in providing housing to LHA tenants, particularly those aged under 35, who aren’t able to access other housing."

But only a quarter of landlords said that their local authority had contacted and actively negotiated with them to reduce rent for poorer tenants in return for direct payment of LHA.

Shapps blasts housing market renewal programme

Housing Minister Grant Shapps has likened the housing market renewal (HMR) programme to German Luftwaffe bombing raids.

He told a  Westminster Hall debate that:

"no programme....did more to destroy homes and communities in this country than the Luftwaffe in the second world war, but the housing market renewal programme did more housing destruction and community destruction than there has been at any time since the war."

The comment was made by the minister as he was questioned about the difference between money spent directly on housing regeneration and money spent on economic regeneration.

Committee Chair and Labour MP Clive Betts said he profoundly disagreed, arguing that the HMR had the support of communities, but that problems had arisen because the government cut off funding after houses had been demolished and before replacement homes could be built.

Concluding the debate, Betts said:

"Clearly, we differ about the nature of the funding streams to which the Government refer and whether, simply because some regeneration areas will benefit from national schemes, that can therefore be labelled regeneration funding."

Progress on data transparency

A new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) says the government needs a better understanding of costs, benefits and use to assess whether data transparency is meeting its objectives of increasing accountability, supporting service improvement and stimulating economic growth.

In some sectors, data that would better inform accountability or choice is either not held or not yet made available. For example, in local government services, the government has discontinued established performance frameworks and the Local Government Association is developing a new approach to performance reporting.

The report, however, does recognise the strength of the strategic case for greater transparency, and highlights progress across government in fulfilling most of its initial commitments.

The NAO makes a number of recommendations in the report to address its conclusions that:

• the government cannot maximise the net benefits of transparency without an evaluative framework for measuring the success and value for money of its transparency initiatives

• the government will not maximise the benefits of transparency if it does not further embed good practice principles

• many data releases have no accompanying statement as to their quality or reliability – running the risk of misleading potential users

• public service users cannot exercise their choice and hold service providers to account if the government fails to align transparency with choice and accountability

• the government cannot extract best value from public sector information, if it does not improve on current estimates of the information’s value.

The government has identified that protecting personal data is a key risk for transparency, and is commissioning a review to consider the issue.

The Guardian reports that the government will look at the NAO recommendations to set up frameworks to evaluate the impact and value of its transparency projects.

The government's proposed 'Open Data Institute' will have a role to improve evidence on economic and public service benefits of open data, although the range and scope of its work is not yet clear.

U-turn on domestic violence legal aid

The Justice Secretary Ken Clark made last minute concessions to his opponents when the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill returned to the Commons on 17 April. The legislation is at the ping pong stage as MPs and peers seek agreement on the text of the Bill.

The government will now define domestic violence in the same way as the Association of Chief Police Officer's definition:

“any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (whether psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between individuals who are associated with each other.”

People who have been recent victims of domestic violence according to this definition will now have access to legal aid when they are dealing with their abuser in court on issues such as ownership of the former matrimonial home, maintenance and access to property — the government had never proposed withdrawing the assistance from those seeking protective injunctions to defend themselves from domestic abuse.

Clarke also agreed to accept a wider range of evidence of domestic violence than originally planned and to extend from one to two years the time limit of the triggering incident of abuse.

The government wants to cut £450m from the legal aid budget. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly told the Commons that:

“our approach is one with a principled basis of focusing scarce resources on the most urgent and serious cases while seeking a broader shift to earlier resolution of disputes.”

It rejected other Lords amendments, including one that sought to to stop the government abolishing face-to-face advice on legal aid. Djanogly argued that phone-based advice has been shown often to be more convenient and accessible than face-to-face advice, particularly benefiting those living in remote areas or those who have a physical disability. He told MPs that trained operators would transfer callers to face-to-face providers if telephone advice was not appropriate.

Opponents were unconvinced; Labour's Sadiq Khan and Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes expressing fears that many vulnerable people will be deterred from seeking support. Khan asked “how many of the Ministers on the Front Bench conduct their surgeries exclusively by telephone”.

The Bill's ping pong will resume on 23 April.

Crisis in care of elderly

A survey published today in the Independent newspaper has found that local authorities are planning to reduce care spending by an average of 3 per cent this year, with many having to make tough decisions on social care.

Some councils are trying to minimise the impact on front-line services through efficiency savings from elsewhere in their budgets, while in others care homes are being shut, social workers made redundant and charges for day care increased.

The survey of more than 30 local authorities found that a number of councils are investing in 'reablement' programmes of intensive help for people to live independently at home so they do not require long-term support. Others favour the use of 'telecare' as an alternative to personal care.

In an interview with the BBC today Sarah Pickup, the new president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said she wants to focus on what local authorities can do while they wait for government to come up with a solution to the mounting problems facing the sector.

The government is planning to publish an adult social care White Paper later on in the year, but the most controversial aspect of the changes - the funding of the system - is not going to be part of that.

Migration Watch UK report on social housing lets

Think tank Migration Watch UK has found that up to 45 per cent of social housing properties are let to foreign nationals.

The report Who is being allocated social housing in London? analyses 2010/11 CoRE lettings data from local authorities and housing associations.

The report's main findings are:

• In 2010/11 the overall proportion of lets to foreign nationals in London was 11 per cent.
• 45 per cent of all social lets in Ealing were to foreign nationals.
• 6 per cent of social lets in Newham were to foreign nationals.
• A large number of lettings were not recorded on CoRE.
• Councils apply concept of 'local connection' in allocations inconsistently.

Migration Watch UK also submitted Freedom of Information requests to London councils asking for the nationality of social housing applicants - because it is "a topic of acute interest to their ratepayers". For a variety of reasons, no borough could respond.

The report has been picked up by Labour MP Frank Field who spoke on Radio 4's Today programme, making the link between its findings and his private member's bill that seeks to give 'good citizens' additional priority for social housing.

On Twitter, Peter Brown, CEO of Herefordshire Housing described the report and media attention as "groundwork for the publication of the Allocation of Accommodation:guidance for LAs".

UK housing crisis - a return to the 80s

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) says it fears a return to the poor housing standards of the 1980s.

It warns that cuts in public spending on housing have led to rising levels of homelessness, more families living in bed and breakfast accommodation, increasing private sector rents and a growing number of complaints about unscrupulous landlords.

Councils are also saving money by cutting back environmental health enforcement activity, with fewer inspections and investigations of sub-standard housing.

CIEH Head of Policy David Kidney said:

"The CIEH has a number of serious concerns about the implications of the Government’s short sighted approach to housing policy in this country."

“Government cuts of around 90 percent to the housing budget will affect some of the most vulnerable members of the community such as the elderly, single mothers and asylum seekers. Coupled with this, local authority cuts will curtail the ability of our members – environmental health practitioners – to police and regulate private rented sector."

Kidney was speaking ahead of the CIEH’s annual Health and Housing Conference on 17 May.

Reduction in data submissions for Councils

The government has reduced the amount of data collections it expects councils to send it by over a quarter.

The newly published single data list 2012-2013 of the information councils are expected to report to central government shows a reduction in demands from 193 data collections last year to 156 this year.

Ministers are also putting in place a 'gateway' process to prevent the build up of new data burdens on local government. Councils will not have to provide anything that is not on the list unless funding is made available.

The collections relating to 'housing' that have ceased since 2010 include:

• Tenant Satisfaction Survey (STATUS) - Cancelled with effect from 10 August 2010. As a replacement HouseMark launched STAR (Survey of Tenants and Residents) in July 2011 as a free voluntary approach to tenant and resident satisfaction measurement for the social housing sector.

• Housing Revenue Account Subsidy Claim forms: second advance and base data forms - No further instances of these collections will be required following the reform of HRA subsidy in 2012/13.

• Disabled Facilities Grant - Collection will no longer be required following the removal of ringfencing in 2011/12.

• National Register of Social Housing (NROSH) - Collection from local authorities discontinued in June 2011.

The collections relating to 'housing' that are time limited,  partially ceased or been reduced include:

• HRA Subsidy Claim form: advance final - Final instance of collection to be issued during 2012/13 for completion by end Sept 2012

• HRA Subsidy Claim form: auditor final - Final instance of collection to be issued during 2012/13 for completion by end Dec 2012

• Mortgage Rescue Scheme return - The data return has been reduced from 20 questions to 3 questions

• Housing Monitoring (P1B) - Frequency of collection reduced from quarterly to annual.

The data collection topics relevant for 'housing' in 2012-2013 include:

• House Building Return (P2a)
• Housing Flows Reconciliation Form (HFR)
• Housing Strategy Statistical Appendix (HSSA) - reviewed
• HRA Business Plan Statistical Appendix (BPSA) - reviewed
• CORE (Continuous Recording) of lettings by local authorities
• Housing Monitoring (P1B) - reviewed
• Local Authority activity under the homelessness provisions of the 1996 Housing Act (P1E)
• Rough sleepers - Local Authority Form
• Count of gypsy and traveller caravans
• Housing Capital Receipts pooling - LOGASNet collection
• Housing Capital Receipts pooling - signed paper return

Next cut is the deepest

According to Nick Pearce, Director of the progressive thinktank 'Institute for Public Policy Research', the government's next spending cut will be its deepest.

In his blog Pearce previews the government's next spending review, due to be published before the end of 2013.

With spending on debt interest rising, resource spending for government departments will be cut by an annual average of 3.8 per cent in real terms in 2015/16 to 2016/17. In the current spending period government departments have already had a 2.3 per cent average annual real cut.

Unless the government can reduce unemployment and bring in fresh sources of tax revenue, Pearce says we are faced with the prospect of further deep cuts to public spending.

In his last budget George Osbourne mentioned that welfare spending could be further cut in order to give protection to departmental spending. Pearce suggests the welfare cuts may be targeted at tax credits, housing benefit and support for people with disabilities as these are the main items of government spending.

Send young unemployed back to Mum and Dad

The Daily Mail, Guardian and Telegraph all reported last week that the government is considering ending the entitlement to housing benefit for people under the age of 25.

The Guardian said that the idea was "floated by No 10 earlier this week but is yet to be developed into a concrete proposal". A 'Downing Street source' told the paper:

"We are always looking at ways to change the welfare system to reward hard work and make work pay" 

and questioned if it was fair to allow unemployed young people to be able to live independently supported by housing benefits when there are many low paid young people living with their parents and who can't afford to move out.

The Mail claimed that "thousands of unemployed youngsters are claiming housing benefit through a loophole the Government is hoping to slam shut".

Housing benefit for young single private renters is already limited to the cost of renting a single room in a shared house, and the government has recently extended this restriction, which previously applied to the under 25s, to those aged 25 to 34.

Kay Boycott from Shelter warned that not all young people had family who could or would help them, telling the Guardian:

"If true, these proposals would leave thousands of vulnerable young people, many of whom may have experienced family breakdown or abuse, with nowhere else to go."

Localism Act measures come into force

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has published a press release outlining key measures in the Localism Act which came into force on 6 April 2012. Communities Minister Andrew Stunell said:

"Instead of putting barriers in the way of communities we are actively taking them away, wiping out interferences, cutting red tape and giving people the power to shape the future of their local area."

Those measures most relevant to social housing are:

• reform of social housing regulation, helping landlords to meet local needs while strengthening tenant scrutiny. Changes to the way complaints are managed will follow in 2013.
• Community Right to Build, handing communities new ways to deliver local development.
• New planning enforcement rules, giving councils the ability to take action against people who deliberately conceal unauthorised development.

Statutory Instruments relating to the Act currently in force are listed here.

Government consults on social housing REITs

The Treasury and the Department of Communities and Local Government have published a consultation seeking views on how to encourage more private investment into the social housing sector through Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), which are tax-efficient vehicles for those wishing to invest in property.

The move was heralded in the Budget on 21 March.

Since the launch of REITs in January 2007, more than three-quarters of the UK’s major listed property companies have joined the regime. To date there are over 20 REITs in the UK with a market capitalisation of over £20bn. However, the focus of investment has been in commercial property, with only a few holding some residential property in their portfolio due to the low yield that this sector generates.

The coalition government and devolved administrations want to encourage institutional investment in the affordable housing sector. They believe that housing associations in particular can offer an attractive form of investment because they provide a stable, inflation-linked income stream from social rents; a large and conservatively-valued asset base; and are effectively regulated.

The current Finance Bill, expected to become law by July, will introduce a number of measures to remove barriers to entry and investment for REITs. But the consultation looks beyond these changes and asks whether the enhanced economies of scale and longer tenures (and consequently lower void rates) of the social housing sector are sufficient to offset a decrease in rental income compared to the private rented sector and thereby make social housing sufficiently attractive for investors.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury Chloe Smith said:

"As well as delivering much-needed accommodation for families, expanding Real Estate Investment Trusts into social housing could present value for money for the taxpayer. I look forward to hearing views during the consultation."

The consultation ends on 27 June.

The paper also indicates that, in England, the social housing regulator (now the Homes and Communities Agency) plans to review certain aspects of the regulatory framework during 2012, "with a view to clarifying the expectations and approach to the regulation of for-profit landlords, as well as considering the impact on not-for-profit landlords where this is relevant." With the current regulatory regime in place for only two days, the regulator is to consult again during the summer, with a revised regime in place by the end of 2012.

Housing minister Grant Shapps also announced that three companies - Orchard and Shipman, Shanley, and Pinnacle Spaces - have  signed up to become commercial providers of social housing (although 24dash.com reported 
that nine for-profit landlords had registered with the regulator in total).

Dramatic growth in working households claiming HB

Research from the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) published last week highlights the rapid growth of in-work Housing Benefit claimant numbers in Great Britain in 2010 and 2011.

The research body analysed figures produced by the Department of Work and Pensions and found that:

• the number of Housing Benefit claimants reached a new high of 4.95 million in December 2011
• in-work households accounted for almost all (93 per cent) of the increase in the number of claimants during 2010 and 2011 
• in December 2011 almost one in four households who rented their accommodation and were in employment received Housing Benefit

The growth in the number of in-work Housing Benefit claimants has far exceeded government estimates, and BSHF estimate that, in 2011, the number of additional in-work claimants increased overall Housing Benefit expenditure by £490 million.

It points out that the Coalition Government will not achieve its intended savings on Housing Benefit expenditure whilst in-work claimants remain at this level. As for the human cost, it concludes:

“The growth of in-work claimants represents households who are in employment but cannot afford to pay their housing costs. The rapid increase in the number of households in this position highlights the vulnerability of their financial situation. If rental accommodation is no longer affordable for many low-income working households it would have serious implications for households, for housing policy and for the wider economy.”

However, a spokesperson for the DWP told 24dash.com:

“BSHF findings are based on wrong assumptions. The fact is that DWP forecast assumptions do include the recent growth in in-work claimants and they have been agreed with the independent Office for Budget Responsibility as well as a range of stakeholders.

“The reality is that Universal Credit will continue to provide a housing safety net, as well helping people into work and those in work to increase their hours by ensuring they keep more of each extra pound they earn and allowing greater access to childcare for 80,000 households.”

Government turns to facebook to promote Right to Buy

The government marked today's introduction of enhanced Right to Buy discounts (see CoalitionWatch 12 March) with a press campaign accompanied by a new Right to Buy facebook page to help councils inform tenants of their rights.

The page draws together information on the scheme from a number of sources as well as providing a forum for the public to comment and Like - attracting around 250 Likes in its first day.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps said:

 "Years of punitive limitations on the level of discounts under Right to Buy have sabotaged the aspirations of hardworking council tenants who want to take their first step on the property ladder.

"This Government wants to help everyone achieve their aspirations - so I'm delighted to announce that from today these miserly restrictions on discounts are history, and tenants will once again receive genuine assistance to feel the pride of home ownership."

The government has promised that the additional homes sold under the revamped scheme will be replaced by new properties for affordable rent, ensuring there is no reduction in the number of affordable homes.

Yet the policy advisor for ARCH, the body that represents councils with housing, says:

"It looks very difficult for most councils to do one-for-one replacement.

"Receipts after the discount will not be sufficient to deliver 30 per cent of [the cost of building] a replacement in any area we have looked at. They just don't seem to add up."