Back to the future or forward to the past?

I suppose that we should be encouraged by the fact that the SNP administration is at least doing some thinking about housing policy (according to The Sunday Herald here). There has not been a lot of such thinking in the past 27 years - at least not by those in power. And certainly the iconic Right to Buy has remained more or less sacrosanct during that period. If the SNP is really going to address the issue, then more power to its elbow.

But it is not going to be easy. If, as suggested by The Herald, it is only newly-built social housing which is to be exempt from RTB, then it is going to be a long time before the new policy has an impact in practice. And why exempt new-build, while retaining RTB for refurbished housing?

The Herald also points out:

The green paper idea won't affect existing tenants, or those who are moving due to their home being demolished or refurbished ...

If it is only new tenants who will lose the RTB, then the impact will be even more attenuated, particularly, as new council housing tended in the past to be allocated to long-standing tenants moving up, rather than to those on the waiting lists. It would also mean the development of two categories of tenants, those with an RTB ticket and those without. On the other hand, depriving tenants of a right they have held since the 1980s is bound to be controversial.

But, however difficult, it seems right that the issue should be addressed. Compare and contrast the latest gimmick being adopted by the Tories south of the border.