Borough to protect housing with £40k cash offer so tenants turn to open market

A London borough is to offer 40 tenants a £40,000 cash payment in place of their Right to Buy discount if they purchase a new home on the open market by 31 March this year.

The scheme at Barking & Dagenham Council has been dubbed the ‘Right to Buy Social Mobility’.

It is limited to 40 applicants and is only available until 31 March, by which point the council tenant must have been assessed as eligible for the Right to Buy, approved for a mortgage and completed on the sale of their new home.

Terms and conditions apply and no cash payment will be made direct to tenants.

Cllr Saima Ashraf, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing at Barking & Dagenham, said: “This scheme is a great way for current tenants to get on the property ladder without it being restricted to their current council home. It also means that the council gets to keep its housing stock which is in more demand than ever.”

She added: “These are very tight timescales and the council will do its best to process applications as quickly as possible for interested applicants, but I must stress that for anyone who wants to take up this great offer they must act quickly; I wouldn’t want interested people to miss out.”