The Housing (Right to Buy) (Designated Rural Areas and Designated Regions) (England) Order 1990

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order designates the Borough of West Devon (exception of the parishes of Tavistock and Okehampton and so much of the Dartmoor National Park as is within that borough) as a rural area for the purposes of section 157 of the Housing Act 1985 (“the Act”). The Order also designates the County of Devon as the designated region for the purposes of that section in relation to dwelling-houses in this rural area.

Where a dwelling-house in a designated rural area (or in a National Park or an area of outstanding natural beauty designated under section 87 of the National Parksand Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (c. 97)) 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 within the meaning of section160 of the Act or, in the case of a disposal by way of tenancy or licence,

• the circumstances specified in section 157(2)(b) are satisfied. Consent must be givenif the disposal is to a person whose home or place of work throughout the preceding three years has been in a designated region which, or part of which, is comprised in the National Park, area of outstanding natural beauty or designated rural area 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.

The designation of an area as a rural area also means that voluntary sales of dwelling-houses in it under section 32 of the Act may,by section 37(1), be made subject to covenants of the kind described in sub-paragraph (a) above.

A copy of the Dartmoor National Park (Designation) Confirmation Order 1951 referred to in article 2(2) is available for inspection at the offices of the Countryside Commission at John Dower House, Crescent Place, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 3RA.