The Housing (Right to Buy) (Designated Rural Areas and Designated Region) (England) Order 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order designates certain parishes in the District of Kennet as rural areas for the purposes of section 157 of the Housing Act 1985 (“the Act”). The Order also designates the District of Kennet as the designated region for the purposes of that section in relation to dwelling-houses in those rural areas.

Where a dwelling-house in a designated rural area is sold under the right to buy, the vendor may under section 157 of the Act either –

(a) impose a covenant requiring its consent to any further disposal unless it is an exempted disposal under section 160 of the Act. That consent cannot be withheld if the disposal is to a person who has throughout the preceding 3 years had his home or place of work in the designated region in which the dwelling-house is situated; or

(b) reserve a right of pre-emption if the Secretary of State or (if the vendor is a housing association) the Housing Corporation consents (general consents have been given for the reservation of such rights).

Voluntary sales, under section 32 of the Act, of dwelling-houses in the designated areas, can (by section 37(1) of the Act) be made subject to similar covenants as to consent but not to rights of pre-emption.