Statutory Instruments
1998 No. 2997

HOUSING, ENGLAND AND WALES
The Housing (Right to Buy) (Limits on Discount) Order 1998

Made
3rd December 1998

Laid before Parliament
10th December 1998

Coming into force
11th February 1999

The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, in exercise of the powers conferred upon him by section 131 of the Housing Act 1985(1) hereby makes the following Order:–

Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Housing (Right to Buy) (Limits on Discount) Order 1998 and shall come into force on 11th February 1999.

Interpretation

2.  In this Order a reference to a numbered section is to the section of the Housing Act 1985 bearing that number.

Maximum discounts

3.—(1) In relation to a dwelling-house in a region specified in column 1 of the Schedule to this order, the sum specified in column 2 of that Schedule is the prescribed sum for the purposes of section 131(2) (maximum sum by which the price payable for a dwelling-house on a conveyance or grant under Part V of the Housing Act 1985 may be reduced by discount in accordance with section 129(2)).

(2) A region specified in column 1 of the Schedule is the region of that name specified in Schedule 1 to the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998(3).

Period of account

4.  The period of time for the purposes of section 131(1)(a) shall be ten years (instead of the period of eight years).

Application

5.  This Order shall not have effect in a case where a notice under section 122(1) was served before this Order came into force and the Order mentioned in article 6 below shall continue to apply in that case.

Revocation

6.  Subject to article 5, the Housing (Right to Buy) (Maximum Discount) Order 1989 is revoked so far as it relates to dwelling-houses in England(4).

Signed by the authority of the Secretary of State

Hilary Armstrong
Minister of State,
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
3rd December 1998

SCHEDULE

Column 1
Column 2

Name of region
Maximum discount

East Midlands
£24,000

Eastern
£34,000

London
£38,000

North East
£22,000

North West
£26,000

South East
£38,000

South West
£30,000

West Midlands
£26,000

Yorkshire and the Humber
£24,000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)
A person exercising the right to buy a dwelling-house in England under Part V of the Housing Act 1985 may be entitled, under sections 129 to 131 of and Schedule 4 to the Act, to a discount equal to a percentage of the price before discount.
The discount may not, however, reduce the price by more than such sum as the Secretary of State may by order prescribe, nor may it reduce the price below an amount representing the costs incurred over a specified period of time in respect of the dwelling-house in accordance with a determination by the Secretary of State. This Order prescribes the maximum discount to be given in each region of England when the right to buy is exercised (superseding and revoking, as respects England, the Housing (Right to Buy) (Maximum Discount) Order 1989 which specified a maximum discount of £50,000). It also specifies the period of time used in the calculation of costs incurred as ten years (instead of 8 years).


(1)
1985 c. 68; subsection (1) of section 131 is amended by section 122 of the Housing Act 1988 (c. 50).

(2)
Section 129 is amended by section 2 of the Housing and Planning Act 1986 (c. 63).

(3)
1998 c. 45.

(4)
S.I. 1989/513.