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The front pages of the national press appear to be trailing a Tory plan to extend the right to buy to housing association tenants.

Now if we believe your posts over the years, you work in a housing association don't you?

If the Tories get in and implement this plan, the same thing that happened to council houses will happen to housing association stock i.e. it will disappear down the plughole and hundreds of thousands of houses will be bought by the tenants and many of them will end up being bought by buy to let landlords.

With a greatly reduced housing association stock, I would have thought it would be carnage in the housing association workforce.

Or am I missing something here?

Not a chance. A lot of my employers tenants are under right to acquire and not the old right to buy. And have you noticed how hard it is to get a decent mortgage these days? We are building loads of new homes which at market value are the same price as non HA stock....i.e. above a price the tenants and most of my colleagues could get a mortgage at. You must realise any mortgage is dependent on new stricter borrowing criteria, a large deposit and the borrowers passing the stress test of much higher rate repayments. The old intermediary lenders, who to their own greed and subsequent doom, lent to people who could not pay rent never mind stick to a mortgage plan.

And guess who bought last time round? Ah yes the Labour wards........whose owners all now think they are landed gentry even though the house hasn't moved.

buy to let ? made a shed of money doing that. Inheritance and salary utilised to pay the mortgage and the rent keeps coming in - reinvest and you know much more of a return than what I could get putting my money in the building society.... when you think about it those building societies are only doing that anyways and those with savings in building societies are just helping them make big bucks doing buy to rent...

"Not a chance."

I would read a bit about the plans before you come to that decision, Argie.

"A lot of my employers tenants are under right to acquire and not the old right to buy."

The Tories plan to extend the right to buy to those who currently have the right to acquire. Your comment is therefore irrelevant.

" And have you noticed how hard it is to get a decent mortgage these days? We are building loads of new homes which at market value are the same price as non HA stock....i.e. above a price the tenants and most of my colleagues could get a mortgage at. You must realise any mortgage is dependent on new stricter borrowing criteria, a large deposit and the borrowers passing the stress test of much higher rate repayments"

Yes I have noticed that Argie. Tenants who want to buy will have a huge discount which will make it much easier to buy. Tenants in houses get a 35% discount, increasing by 1% for every extra year above 5 years you have been a public sector tenant. Tenants in flats get a 50% discount which goes up 2% every year. This summer the qualifying period for Right to Buy will be reduced from five years to three. This will make it considerably easier to buy. In some cases tenants will get as much as a ?80K discount.

"The old intermediary lenders, who to their own greed and subsequent doom, lent to people who could not pay rent never mind stick to a mortgage plan."

As with council houses, this will provide a huge opportunity for everyone who is currently in housing association property or has family in social housing.

If I were you, I would pray that the Tories don't win and introduce their Right to Steal. Otherwise, you may have to move to Wales or Scotland to keep working in the sector. When Thatcher brought in the Right to Buy for council house tenants there was a huge drop in the number of council houses available to rent. The same will happen to housing association accommodation.

DJ. I fear you may be getting a tad personal. Thousands of HA and RSL staff are lifelong dyed in the wool Labour voters. So wishing your fellow Labour voters unemployment is the sign of someone who needs help. Be careful what you wish for...you may be in need of some quality affordable housing at some time in the future. You won't find much help in the private sector.

"Thousands of HA and RSL staff are lifelong dyed in the wool Labour voters. So wishing your fellow Labour voters unemployment is the sign of someone who needs help."

Not at all. I would not wish unemployment on anyone including yourself, apart from Tory MPs, What I am highlighting is the inevitable result of this Tory policy if they get elected again on the jobs of people like yourself.

That is what I am trying, clearly very unsuccessfully, to get across to you. For me not to highlight the implication of this Tory plan would be like not shouting a warning to you as you were about to cross the road in front of an oncoming lorry.

In these circumstances for someone like yourself to vote Tory would be like a turkey voting for Xmas.

"Be careful what you wish for...you may be in need of some quality affordable housing at some time in the future"

Yes indeed. Again you completely misunderstand my post. I am totally against Right to Buy. I was against it when Thatcher brought it in. I was against the Labour government subsequently supporting the measure. I am totally against this Tory plan. I want more council housing and HA housing, not less.

It is not just me that is vehemently against this plan which will further ghettoise social tenants but also substantially reduce the size of housing stock available for the likes of housing associations. The body that represents UK Housing Associations also thinks this plan, if implemented, is a disaster. THey are considering a legal challenge to any plan that the Tories try to implement based on these measures.

Knowledge is power, Argie. I've done my bit. If you still think I am talking shite, well I have tried my best.

Forgot to mention that housing associations are talking about mounting a legal challenge to Cameron's plans based on

"Because housing associations are private not-for-profit businesses, forcing the sale of homes at below market value could potentially breach Article 1, Protocol 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives everyone the ?right to the peaceful enjoyment of one?s possessions?.

I am sure you would like to join me in thanking God for the European Convention on Human Rights, eh Argie? !wink!

Yep and all the interest on the mortgage is tax deductable. No profit no tax.

Another givaway. I thought the tories were supposed to be the friend of the tax payer????

Next we wont have any affordable homes to house the poorest and we tax payers will be shafted to keep them in B+B's. We've been down this fucking road before

This policy is a mixture of social cleansing and insanity.

Apparently this is the deal. Housing Association tenants in their droves buy their flats and houses. After all they can get up to ?80K for nothing and many flats in the north would not be worth more than that anyway. Who would not turn down the offer of a free flat?

Now Housing Associations are expected to replace these houses/flats that have been sold/given away, on a one to one basis by new houses/flats. They are supposed to fund this, given they have virtually given away their housing stock by selling their most valuable properties when they become vacant.

Now that begs a number of questions. Why would anyone who is paying housing association reasonable rents in an expensive part of town, move out? If they moved to the private sector, they would pay a fortune to rent. They would be crazy to buy a house in the same area because they would be giving up the discount on their current tenancy etc. etc.

ANd anyone who has travelled in the north would know that in some council areas there is no expensive part of town.

Anyway lets say the tenants kick the bucket and the housing association flogs the house in the expensive part of town. That means that the Housing association places will be concentrated in the poor parts of town.

There will obviously be a big delay between houses sold and houses built and it is difficult to see how the HAs are going to get enough sales of expensive stock if there is such a thing as an expensive housing assoc. place in their area to fund the avalanche of housing building required to replace the houses lost to people buying their own heavily discounted places.

Result? Housing Association stock goes down and down and many Housing Association staff get the bullet.

Complete insanity!