Council suspends 'right to buy'

Council tenants have had their right to buy suspended

Council tenants living in 35 letting areas across Stirling are to have the right to buy their homes suspended for five years.

The local authority has been given "pressured area status" by the Scottish Government amid fears over the falling number of affordable properties.

The decision, which only applies to those who moved into their homes after September 2002, will affect 245 people.

The authority is the 12th in Scotland to be granted the status.

The move has been welcomed by Shelter Scotland who said that despite the popularity of right to buy, the policy had come at the expense of providing homes for local families.

Director Graeme Brown said: "With 2,298 households on the waiting list in Stirling, this suspension of right to buy will mean people have a better chance of getting a decent home in the future."

The SNP, aided and abetted by Labour have used the cover of the current economic crisis to attack this hard fought right Councillor Neil Benny

The suspension will apply to tenants living in rural areas to the west and north of the M9/A9, including Cambusbarron, Dunblane, Bridge of Allan and Causewayhead/Logie and Stirling town centre.

Tenants in Riverside, Broombridge, Braehead and the Newhouse/lower St Ninians area, Bannockburn, Whins and Hillpark/Firs areas will also be affected.

An estimated 1,349 council house tenants will be affected by the change over the next five years.

The decision comes after figures showed there were more than 20 applicants for every council home in some parts of the district.

'Housing stock'

Alasdair MacPherson, portfolio holder for housing strategy at the SNP-led Stirling Council, said: "Across these areas, since right to buy was introduced, 4,734 homes, or 63%, has been lost and this is a contributing factor to the homelessness crisis that we currently face.

"It is essential that we protect this remaining social rented housing stock which is now in such short supply."

Pressured area status legislation was introduced in 2001 to help prevent further reduction in the number of local authority properties.

According to the latest sales figures, the average house price for a property in Stirling is about £182,000.

However, Stirling Conservative councillor Neil Benny attacked the strategy of limiting council house sales.

He said: "This is a politically-motivated attack on the right to buy. The SNP, aided and abetted by Labour, have used the cover of the current economic crisis to attack this hard-fought right."

Mr Benny said a drop in house sales caused by the credit crunch had led to a shortfall of £1,739,000 in the council's housing capital programme, which is used to fund refurbishment of the authority's housing stock.

He added: "The idea that at a time when house sales are too low to support the capital programme we would make it worse by withdrawing the right to buy is absurd."