Is selling off expensive council homes such a bright idea?

Here’s a policy that looks like it could be a vote winner while helping to solve Britain’s housing crisis: selling off expensive council homes. Think tank Policy Exchange has published a paper this morning proposing that local authorities be allowed to sell luxurious properties in their boroughs as they become vacant in order to raise money for new, cheaper social properties. The report’s author, Alex Morton, believes this could lead to 28,500 expensive properties being sold off each year, raising £5.5 billion for new housing construction. The idea is also, unsurprisingly, quite a popular one with voters. The report points to 73 per cent of voters agreeing that people should not be offered council houses that are worth more than the average house in their local authority, and a net agreement of +27 per cent among social tenants themselves on this matter. To underline that support, the opening pages of the report feature some rather eye-catching pictures of expensive social housing that look more at home in the pages of Country Life than a local authority lettings list.