Why were council tenants given the 'right to buy' their homes?

[rosepetal]

Didn't this lead to a shortage in council housing? Why were families of tenants allowed to purchase property on their behalf and sell for a profit on the tenants death?

[ummmm]

To make money

[Ethel]

Anybody who bought their council homes at a discount could sell for a profit after a few years.

Local councils were in dire straits with huge debts and were unable to meet their commitments regarding the council stock of housing. Much of it was in very poor repair and chasing tenants for rent was also a burden.

By selling the council properties, they got money in the coffers and passed responsibility for maintaining the properties to the new owners.

The councils were not allowed to use the money for housing or anything else until their debts were cleared.

As this did lead to a shortage of council housing, in 1997 the discount was reduced severely and further rules have been implemented since 2005 to stop the houses being immediately sold on the open market.

Housing Associations and shared ownership schemes seem to have taken over the role of social housing. Time will tell if that is a good thing.

[Postdog]

It was a Thatcherite move to alter society. Some councils up until then could sell council houses, but not on the scale which changes in the law made possible. Thatchers view (this is my opinion BTW, but also that of loads of others) was that the "ordinary working man" would have more pride in society as a whole if they owned their home rather than rented it. Put another way, if people had mortgages, they'd feel less inclined to strike - which was something of a national past time prior to Maggie getting in - than they would if they just rented their house.

This article from Wiki explains a lot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-buy

[gary baldy]

Thatcher hated anything that was associated with the 'welfare state' that Labour had constructed after the war.
There was little to gain financially for the government (in fact there are those who argue that it actually cost more to set up the infrastructure to sell them off than was gained) so it was purely ideological.
The Tories were commited to removing State control from many areas tand this included housing.
The removal of the ability to rent at relatively low rate has given us the over inflated house prices we have now and the housing time bomb that our children will have to disarm.
IMO the simple cure to all this would be for the government to restart building and owning housing (which isnt gonna happen anytime soon is it?)

[luckyeight]

As usual, Ethel has responded marvellously. Not much to add to what has already been said, but would point out that a huge amount of council housing has been sold to the massive detriment of everyone - house prices are now unaffordable and there is a shortage of council housing as well as private builds. The council house sell off in the 80s was pretty much a national scandal.

[dawkins]

.The conservative government embarked on a broad policy of privatisation wherever possible. They believed that, all things being equal, private firms would run services better than the state and that big government was hampering economic progress through inefficiency and high taxation. By encouraging tenants to buy council houses at a discount wage they believed that it would give them an economic stake in society and give them a saleable asset that would encourage mobility of labour (important because there was large scale structural unemployment in many working class areas and people were understandably reluctant to give up their house). At the same time they banned local councils from reinvesting the proceeds of RTB back into new housing thus deliberately reducing the available council housing stock. Nevertheless, the council/housing association sector still accounts for 20 % of total housing stock in the UK.

[andy-hughes]

The notion of society 'helping itself' was a cornerstone of Thatcher's beilefs. Which is fine if you are a moderately intelligent woman who happens to be married to a millionaire businessman and you understand about as much about social housing as you do about the back end of the moon.

We should be used to our politicians living their lives utterly removed from the lives of those they represent - free First Class rail fare from their constituancy to Westminster and back removes them from our orbit on Day One - but this was folly of gross and far-reaching proportions, which, as advised, has still to reap its full terrible consequences.

Mrs T. thought everyone wanted to own their own business and 'reap rewards'. She never has, and never will realise that a lot of people are frightened by that leve of responsibility - and they are entitled to be housed adequately by the State provided they are contributing to it - something that would make Mrs. T. spit on the pavement if it was suggested to her.

She is gone, but her 'legacies' live on.

[rosepetal]

Thanks for your answers folks. All very interesting. Well most anyway!