TMW Unlimited has launched a major campaign to promote the Government’s controversial Right to Buy scheme, which gives tenants of local authorities and housing associations in England the opportunity to purchase their own property.
The campaign, devised for the Department for Communities and Local Government, is designed to give tenants the tools and information to help them decide whether owning their home is the right choice for them.
Under the scheme, tenants can get discounts of up to £103,900 (£77,900 outside London) on the purchase price.
The creative execution shows a flight of stairs in a house as the symbol to help people climb towards their homeowning goal, with the discounts available under the scheme are inscribed on each of the steps.
The campaign spans social, press ads, native digital, direct mail, door drops, static and digital out of home. The marketing mix is determined by what part of the country the campaign is running in. Overall activity is targeted within local authority areas with high levels of social housing properties across England.
A combination of personalised, direct mail and non-personalised door-drop leaflets will be sent to consumers known to be potentially eligible and interested in buying their own home.
However, the scheme is not without its critics. A report published in January 2013 by London Assembly member Tom Copley, showed that 36% of homes sold under the original Right to Buy scheme in London were being let out by councils from private landlords.
This lead to criticism that the scheme “represents incredibly poor value for money to taxpayers” since it “helped to fuel the increase in the housing benefit bill, heaped more pressure on local authority waiting lists and led to more Londoners being forced into the under-regulated private rented sector”.
