Council Grant to buy property INFO PLZ

Meekypeeky

Hi, 

Newbie here, 

I've heard about councils grants for people to give up their council tenancy and was wondering if this was a good scheme/idea to move forward with.

I am a secure tenant for a lot of years and have a 4 bedroom council flat in a nice London area.
We would love to buy a two bed property outside London.

Does anyone have any information or experience with council grants at all to help people buy their first home?
I'm clueless to it all and would love some advice from anyone with it, but it'd be great if I could hear from someone who has used this scheme themselves. 

Thanks a bunch people 

Meeky

sheramber

Each council who offer the scheme operate their own scheme with their own rules.

You should be able to check on your council website if they offer this scheme.

theartfullodger

Does your council still do right2buy?? If so (albeit I'm opposed to the scheme) you'd get way way way more money going that way.  The bung for giving up your tenancy ain;t that huge.  But, as above, find out what YOUR council would offer on YOUR home. 

Schwarzwald

Meekypeeky said:

I've heard about councils grants for people to give up their council tenancy and was wondering if this was a good scheme/idea to move forward with.

not really your question but I dont think this is a "good scheme" from a tax payers perspective.

Why should it take tax payers' money to incentivize people to downsize when there is a long wait list, especially in London, for appropriate sized council housing?
If people no longer require a 4-bedroom council flat but instead only require 2-bedrooms going forward, they should downsize voluntarily or the council should be able to force them to do so.

Giving out free money while councils are notorously cash strapped across the country doesnt seem like a good use of tax funds to me. Legally it might be all right and you might be eligible, morally I find these grants very disputable, but also shows how broken the (council) housing sector is in England