please empty your brain below

Like.
Thanks for the tip-off about the NT opening. Just booked...
A friend of mine was living on the top floor of this block and had purchased his flat from the Local Authority at a very hefty discount, he moved out years ago and has been renting it out for a fortune for a number of years, he has now sold it back to the Local Authority and again made a huge profit, I say good luck to him and I would probably have done exactly the same thing in his position, but this is exactly what has always been the fault with the "Right to Buy " scheme, social housing is lost to the system and an individual makes a fat packet of money
I'm with you, DG. The art's all very well, but it's the building and the views that excite me.

The trouble is, these things pale when you have to live there every day. Even the most fabulous view becomes a bit like wallpaper after a while. You fail to appreciate it, like new visitors do.
"opportunities on their doorstep generally passes them by" Indeed they do. In fact "opportunities" in general pass "them" by. Maybe could take "advantage" of the "Right to Buy" scheme...but that be tricky on "zero hour contract".
'Artists are the shock troops of gentrification' - discuss!

"We've had it now - the bl**dy artists are moving in!"

See
http://novaramedia.com/2013/08/social-cleansing-in-tower-hamlets-interview-with-balfron-tower-evictee/
Fishislandskin: sometimes the "right to buy" owner is asked to contribute tens of thousands to one-off maintenance costs.
Andrew, just as any homeowner whether they be a right to buy purchaser or a full market value price purchaser has to sometimes do, property needs to be maintained and if you are lucky enough to obtain a right to buy then common sense would make you realise that there will be at some stage hefty bills to pay. It would state within your lease that contributions will be reguired at some stage over the coming years and a good solicitor should point this out to you.
It's just another baleful aspect of Right to Buy that many people got lured in by the discounted purchase price and then couldn't afford the substantial running costs, particulrly when major works come along. So repossession follows and the property is picked up by a private landlord who has the cash (as mortgages can be difficult for ex-local authority flats) and can pay for the major works to get a substantially improved property.

In the case of Balfron Tower, anyone who bought a flat a few years ago for, say £120,000, will probably be looking at a major works bill of about the same again, but once everything has been done up (and the artists thrown out!) they could be sitting in a property worth at least £400,000.

It doesn't help that social housing freeholders don't usually build up a reserve fund in the service charges, hence the big one off bills. They do at least offer easy payment schemes and set a limit above which new Right to Buyers won't have to pay. Also, many local authorities are now buying back properties from Right to Buyers who want out, as they try to build up their stock of social housing again.
Fishislandskin: absolutely, just pointing out that not everyone is as quids-in as your lucky friend. See, for example, http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2012/jul/24/right-to-buy-revival-leaseholders

When the local authority repurchased his flat, I hope they discounted the price for the amount he would have been required to contribute to the refurbishment?










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