Right to Buy in Scotland – how long will you have the right for?

By: Keith Bateup  

If you live in Scotland and are thinking about buying your council house or flat it might be worth looking into it now. Recent changes in legislation are limiting the opportunities of those wishing to buy their home and rumours predict that the Right to Buy scheme could be abolished in the very near future.

Introduced in the 1980s the Right to Buy scheme achieved its goal and was successful in offering tens of thousands of council tenants the opportunity of owning their own home. In a survey carried out by the charity Shelter Scotland, out of the 1013 members of the public interviewed, 66% said that Scotland had benefited from the scheme by increasing the number of home owners.

The popular scheme seemed to be going very well hitting an all time peak of over 240,000 new home owners under the scheme in 1982. However in 2001 the maximum discount was reduced to £15,000 and the period of tenancy increased from 2 to 5 years thus slowing down the upward trend of Right to Buy in Scotland. Then in 2002 warning signs came about that there was a housing crisis and shortage of affordable homes for tenants and the Right to Buy scheme was held responsible.

So what is going to happen to the Right to Buy? Will it disappear for ever and will council tenants no longer be offered the possibility of buying their own homes in the future or will the government come up with a suitable alternative?

If you are interested in buying your council property and are not sure whether you have the Right to Buy it might be worth looking into it now.

A useful website about right to buy is http://falkirk.right-to-buy-mortgage.info It explains the Scotland Right to Buy rules in detail and offers all the information you need.

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