3 ottob 1980 anni - 1980 Housing Act

Descrizione:

The Thatcher government saw the ownership of housing by individuals rather than by state encouraged responsibility and state of citizenship. This led to Michael Heseltine introducing the 1980 Housing Act which allowed council tenants the ability to buy their council houses. They would get a discount of 33% to 50% depending on how long they have lived there.

Council owners more often voted Conservative than tenants who often voted Labour. It was thought that tenants that turned into owners were more likely to vote Conservative.

The Act was extremely successful, with 1 million tenants using the act in 1987, doubling to 2 million in 1988. Labour was originally in opposition, but was forced to change due to the popularity of owning council housing.

Despite the success, there were some negative consequence. Council owners were encouraged to use revenue from council houses sales to reduce debt instead of make new council houses. This led to houses for people with little revenue reducing in number and quality. Additionally, council house sales were in more prosperous areas and less desirable areas saw little impact.