In a speech to the House of Lords last week, Lord Kerslake attacked Government’s flagship policy to extend the ‘Right to Buy’ to 1.3m housing association tenants.

Commenting on the policy, one of the country’s leading experts on rural housing policy says that the plan ‘makes no sense’ and will be especially disastrous for those in rural communities. Professor Mark Shucksmith OBE, director at the Newcastle University Institute for Social Renewal, comments: “There is already a shortage of affordable housing, especially in rural areas where there is little social housing. Rural house prices are on average 26% higher than in urban areas, and the ratio of house prices to local earnings is even worse.

“Disposing of housing association stock, at great cost to the taxpayer, will make the impact on rural communities much more serious. We are already seeing those on low and medium incomes, and especially young people, priced out of small towns and villages across the UK. With housing association properties sold off, and unlikely to be replaced in any substantial quantities, the wealth divide in rural communities will deepen even further.”