If you look in the council accounts for last year, which are on the internet, you will see an entry for unallocated capital receipts, which is therefore not a black hole, in that you can see into it, beyond what, were it actually a black hole, would be the Schwarzchild radius.
As regards the right to buy receipts, I really am not the best person to ask. My limited understanding is that the RTB scheme has been going on now since 1980 - about 20 years - and the sales peaked in 1980-1984, with a lower peak in 1988-9. I also believe that 75% of the proceeds had to be applied to debt reduction and the remaining 25% could be used as part of the capital programme. I believe the current government has undertaken to allow more to be released, but to little effect.
I have no idea how accurate the figure of £85m is, but on the national figures this would mean that recent receipts would be no more than £2m p.a., releasing £500,000 p.a. for the capital programme - not a lot.
Please note that none of these figures are Richmond upon Thames figures.
I would be interested to know where RH got his figure of £85m - although over 20 years this doesn't sound wrong.
Given that RTB discounts are now capped and sales are tailing off, this will not be a major source of capital even if the straightjacket is taken off.
I am sorry, RH, but the days of the council providing social housing are over. The best we can do is to enable others to do that and to try to ensure that larger sites contain a reasonable proportion of affordable housing, which is a policy vociferously opposed at every opportunity by the Conservatives, who are the only other party with any chance of winning elections in this area.
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