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At last a bit of tweaking in the right direction (following in the footsteps of John Prescott who also tweaked):
Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme has cost UK taxpayers almost £200bn, according to a report into the policy’s contribution to Britain’s housing crisis.
In its report into the sale of millions of council homes to their tenants at steep discounts since 1980, the Common Wealth thinktank said the policy had fuelled vast shortages in social housing and turbocharged inequality.
Describing it as one of the “largest giveaways in UK history”, it said the sale of 1.9m council homes in England had contributed to a situation where one in six private tenants in England now rents a former local authority home.
Local authority tenants have been able to buy their homes since 1936, but changes made under the first Thatcher government in 1980 triggered a boom in sales at steep discounts to market value.
Calculating the “opportunity cost” of the sales, Common Wealth said the former council homes were now worth an estimated £430bn after taking account of inflation and the surge in property prices since 1980.
Of this sum, the thinktank said £194bn represented the value that was effectively given away when the homes were sold at a discount. Between the years 1980-81 and 2023-24, the discount averaged 43% on the prevailing market price.
The report comes as Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, pushes to tackle Britain’s housing crisis by making sweeping changes to right to buy, including making it harder for tenants in England to buy their council home.
Under the planned changes, eligibility for the scheme will be tightened. This will include extending the minimum time a council tenant must live in their home from three to 10 years before they can buy it at a discount.
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Labour has pledged a “social rent revolution”, allocating £39bn of social and affordable homes over the next 10 years, alongside slashing planning rules to support private sector housebuilding. However, critics have warned that the government could struggle to hit its target to build 1.5m new homes in total.
Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing campaigner, said right to buy had “gutted council housing and transferred public wealth into private hands”.
“We’re in a housing emergency. Millions stuck on waiting lists. Tens of thousands living in temporary accommodation that’s unfit and unsafe. All while homes that were once publicly owned are now profit-generating assets for private landlords,” he said.
Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme has cost UK taxpayers almost £200bn, according to a report into the policy’s contribution to Britain’s housing crisis.
In its report into the sale of millions of council homes to their tenants at steep discounts since 1980, the Common Wealth thinktank said the policy had fuelled vast shortages in social housing and turbocharged inequality.
Describing it as one of the “largest giveaways in UK history”, it said the sale of 1.9m council homes in England had contributed to a situation where one in six private tenants in England now rents a former local authority home.
Local authority tenants have been able to buy their homes since 1936, but changes made under the first Thatcher government in 1980 triggered a boom in sales at steep discounts to market value.
Calculating the “opportunity cost” of the sales, Common Wealth said the former council homes were now worth an estimated £430bn after taking account of inflation and the surge in property prices since 1980.
Of this sum, the thinktank said £194bn represented the value that was effectively given away when the homes were sold at a discount. Between the years 1980-81 and 2023-24, the discount averaged 43% on the prevailing market price.
The report comes as Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, pushes to tackle Britain’s housing crisis by making sweeping changes to right to buy, including making it harder for tenants in England to buy their council home.
Under the planned changes, eligibility for the scheme will be tightened. This will include extending the minimum time a council tenant must live in their home from three to 10 years before they can buy it at a discount.
-
Labour has pledged a “social rent revolution”, allocating £39bn of social and affordable homes over the next 10 years, alongside slashing planning rules to support private sector housebuilding. However, critics have warned that the government could struggle to hit its target to build 1.5m new homes in total.
Kwajo Tweneboa, a social housing campaigner, said right to buy had “gutted council housing and transferred public wealth into private hands”.
“We’re in a housing emergency. Millions stuck on waiting lists. Tens of thousands living in temporary accommodation that’s unfit and unsafe. All while homes that were once publicly owned are now profit-generating assets for private landlords,” he said.
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