The Housing and Planning Bill, which has a crucial reading in the House of Lords today, compels Local Authorities to sell off high value housing stock as it becomes vacant.
This is to fund the Right to Buy extension for Housing Association tenants. But new analysis, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that high demand for bungalows will mean that homes lived in by older people, in particular those who have a sickness or disability, are almost three times more likely to be sold off and will be more difficult to replace.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is calling on the Government to protect older people and those with disabilities by making bungalows and sheltered and supported housing exempt from the calculation of the levy placed on the High Value Sales initiative, which would allow the stock to be protected. This would follow a precedent set by Northern Ireland, which exempts bungalows and ground-floor flats from the House Sales Scheme, a similar initiative to the Right to Buy.
Read more on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website