7. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Housing

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:54 pm on 9 January 2019.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 5:54, 9 January 2019

I think it would have been a better scheme if councils had always been allowed to reinvest the money that they got from the sale back into additional stock. Of course, that was prevented for the vast majority of the time that right to buy was in place. It had to be put against paying off debt and so on in an extremely non-beneficial way. I think that was a mistake. But, I actually fundamentally disagree with the principle in the first place, because actually I don't think there's anything wrong with having good social housing, having a tenure where you rent. Most of my family never wanted to own their own house, what they wanted was a decent place with security of tenure, a place to bring up their families, a place where their families could also live. So, if you want to buy, that's great, but I don't think we should build social housing with a view to selling it off into the private sector and that's why we've ended the right to buy.