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How ex-council tenants make over £200k selling homes back to councils

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Reposted by Greg Barradale

Daniel @deargodwhatnow.bsky.social · 21h

(Yes this is how the free market works, it's now fashionable for councils to 'buy back' social housing and this is supposedly a good use of money)

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

In 2014, Hackney Council sold a property under Right to Buy for £95,050

In 2021, they bought it back off the ex-tenant for £365k

In ~6 yrs, the council lost £269,950 on a single property

It's not an isolated example. @bigissue.com has uncovered 100+ 'Yo-yo Homes'

www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

Big Issue investigates the Right To Buy properties sold back to councils for massive profits, just years after being bought at a discount.

How ex-council tenants make over £200k selling homes back to councils

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 20h

someone who is good at local government finances please help me budget this

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Reposted by Greg Barradale

Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 20h

The other way of looking at this is that Hackney Council spent £269,950 to get someone to give up their council tenancy

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

In 2014, Hackney Council sold a property under Right to Buy for £95,050

In 2021, they bought it back off the ex-tenant for £365k

In ~6 yrs, the council lost £269,950 on a single property

It's not an isolated example. @bigissue.com has uncovered 100+ 'Yo-yo Homes'

www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

Big Issue investigates the Right To Buy properties sold back to councils for massive profits, just years after being bought at a discount.

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 20h

EXCLUSIVE: Councils are buying back homes they sold just a few years previously under Right to Buy, losing millions

🪀We’re calling them Yo-yo Homes and they’re making ex-tenants over £200k in some cases, at the expense of taxpayers

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 20h

Follow me on Instagram, btw, if you love stories and hate reading: www.instagram.com/GregBarradale/

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

🪀Great to see my Yo-yo Homes investigation picked up by @the-independent.com and @hollybancroft.bsky.social

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

I mean, it's not the usual argument for leaving the ECHR...

Abortion is close to decriminalisation. But how quickly can rights be rolled back?

Reposted by Greg Barradale

Isabella McRae @isabellamcrae.bsky.social · 21h

I've spent a few months working on a series of articles on abortion rights in the UK. The first piece is out today.

Abortion is a step closer to decriminalisation in England and Wales, but with the rise of right-wing rhetoric, are rights still at risk?

www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

More than 100 women are believed to have been arrested on suspicion of abortion over the last five years in England and Wales.

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

Yo-yo Homes are costing councils millions and making ex-tenants rich, as councils buy back homes they sold just a few years previously under Right to Buy

That's what we've uncovered in this week's @bigissue.com

I spent all my time making the story good and none of it learning to yo-yo. Enjoy

Big Issue @bigissue.com · 21h

A Yo-Yo Home is a property bought from a council under Right to Buy, then sold back to the council between five and 10 years later, at a profit.

Senior reporter @gregbarradale.bsky.social explains why they exist in this week's special investigation. ⬇️
www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

How ex-council tenants make over £200k selling homes back to councils

Reposted by Greg Barradale

Big Issue @bigissue.com · 21h

A Yo-Yo Home is a property bought from a council under Right to Buy, then sold back to the council between five and 10 years later, at a profit.

Senior reporter @gregbarradale.bsky.social explains why they exist in this week's special investigation. ⬇️
www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

Florence Eshalomi, chair of parliament's housing select committee, said my investigation “blatantly shows that the current Right to Buy policy isn’t working”

You can read it here: www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

Or in this week's Big Issue magazine

Big Issue investigates the Right To Buy properties sold back to councils for massive profits, just years after being bought at a discount.

How ex-council tenants make over £200k selling homes back to councils

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

We reveal Yo-yo Homes are losing councils millions, while getting ex-tenants rich

@cmmonwealth.bsky.social say: “It takes who is able to get into social housing into a much higher-stakes question.”

@neweconomics.bsky.social say: “You’re expecting other people to foot the bill for your discount"

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

🪀In Ellesmere Port, Cheshire West and Chester council sold a home for £16k under Right to Buy in 2016

They bought it back for £170k in 2024 - a 10x return for the ex-tenant, at the taxpayer's expense

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

🪀In 2015, a tenant bought a property off Swindon council under Right to Buy for £30k

In 2021, they sold it back to the council for £150k - making a 5x profit of £120,000

Because it's 5+ years after RtB, they don't have to pay any discount back. That's what makes a Yo-yo Home

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 21h

In 2014, Hackney Council sold a property under Right to Buy for £95,050

In 2021, they bought it back off the ex-tenant for £365k

In ~6 yrs, the council lost £269,950 on a single property

It's not an isolated example. @bigissue.com has uncovered 100+ 'Yo-yo Homes'

www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

Big Issue investigates the Right To Buy properties sold back to councils for massive profits, just years after being bought at a discount.

How ex-council tenants make over £200k selling homes back to councils

4 35 51

Reposted by Greg Barradale

Big Issue @bigissue.com · 22h

Big Issue investigates the Right To Buy properties sold back to councils for massive profits, just years after being bought at a discount.

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Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 4d

43) The New New Thing by Michael Lewis

I would read this man’s shopping list. Even if his subjects fall short the sentence-to-sentence writing is a marvel

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#BookSky

2

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 4d

42) The Double Cross System by JC Masterman

The guy who created Britain’s double-cross spy system during WWII. Some of the hi-jinks are amazing, like the time they realised the only way not to blow an agent’s cover was to fake blowing up an arms dump…by blowing it up for real

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#BookSky

One mum's months-long ordeal to find out how her son died in a homeless hostel

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 4d

“They probably assumed that somebody with his kind of needs and lifestyle didn’t have anybody. They didn’t care.”

The details in this @lgeraghty23.bsky.social piece will teach you a lot about how the deaths of homeless people are treated

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 4d

NEW: Debby Wakeham didn't learn about the death of her son, Richard Sanders, in a London homeless hostel, until nine days after the fact

Five months on, she's still desperately searching for answers

A reminder: 1,611 people died while homeless in 2024

www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

Richard Sanders died in a homeless hostel in Brixton on 14 May. His mum Debby Wakeham didn’t find out until nine days later.

Revealed: Brits trust Claudia Winkleman more than Rachel Reeves

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 5d

Politicians know they're not trusted. As he became prime minister, Keir Starmer said: “The fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era.”

It's a fight politicians seem to be losing even against celebrity game show contestants

www.bigissue.com/culture/tv/r...

Celebrity Traitors or British politicians – who would Brits more? We asked Ipsos to run a poll to find out. And the results are damning.

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 5d

📺 The public trust the cast of Celebrity Traitors more than the UK's leading politicians

With Celebrity Traitors kicking off tonight, @bigissue.com asked @ipsosintheuk.bsky.social to find out who's more trusted: celebs going to a castle to lie to each other on telly, or the UK's politicians

A day inside the drab asylum court at the heart of plans to close migrant hotels

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 5d

If you want to really understand the courts politicians spend so much time talking about, go and sit in the back of one of the rooms

Or just read this:

www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Keir Starmer's government has promised to speed up the asylum appeals process. We went to court to find how realistic that is.

Greg Barradale @gregbarradale.bsky.social · 5d

I spent a day in the immigration tribunals Robert Jenrick wants to abolish recently

The reality? Judges don't get much time to impose their political views - they're too busy chasing lawyers and experts for paperwork

Delayed cases, locked doors, and angry judges