Member

More broadly, the Government are not in favour of bringing shared owners into the right-to-buy scheme. Right to buy is limited to social homes for rent and low-cost home ownership accommodation as defined in the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. It is deliberately excluded from the scheme. This distinction is fundamental to the policy. Right to buy is designed to support tenants who do not currently have an ownership stake in their home to take their first step into home ownership. Shared ownership, by contrast, is already a home ownership product. Individuals purchase a share in their home and can increase that share over time through staircasing. Including shared ownership within right to buy would blur these distinct policy objectives. It could create a two-tier market and, more broadly, cause unnecessary overlap between the schemes and risk destabilising a key affordable home ownership product. For these reasons, I ask the noble Baroness not to press her amendments.