Renting or owning - we need the choice

摘要

I read with interest the article by Jamie Hailstone entitled Housing Bill a threat to local decision-making (The MJ, 5 November). Shadow Housing Minister John Healey is quite right when he says the proposed Housing and Planning Bill will deny local authorities and the communities they represent the potential to shape the development of their own areas. By putting ever more power in the hands of the communities secretary, this undermines local accountability on a worrying scale. Of significant concern in the Bill is the extension of the Right to Buy scheme to tenants of housing associations.