Council houses right to buy.

[john mounsey]

Why does Maggie Thatcher get the credit for giving people the right to buy their council house. Council house tenants were given the right to buy in 1968.my parents among them.(they declined).
  At the time you paid the full market value of the property. All Thatcher did in the 1980's was sell them off  cheap.

[Shelton]

I think you have answered your own question. Why would anyone pay the full market price for a 'Council' house when you could buy one for almost the same on the 'posh' estate. Once they were being flogged off at marked down prices they became a 'bargain'.

[GrannyMac]

It was down to individual councils back in the 60s, some sold houses, some didn't.  Once the RTB became law, councils had no choice. 

[granny bee]

That  the money received was never re-invested in more houses to rent by local authorities perhaps is partly responsible for todays shortages.

[GrannyMac]

Can you imagine what that would have cost the taxpayer?   The last labour govt could have withdrawn the RTB but it might have lost them votes.

[Hugh]

I bought my council house but the price was reduced by the amount I had paid out in rent. If you wanted to sell with in a set period it had to be returned to the council. X council houses nearly always be cheaper to buy than a private built house in the same area. Labour party should have built more council houses with the money raised like GrannyMac says.

[GrannyMac]

I didn't say they should build more, I said they should have stopped selling them. At least they could have stopped selling any more in areas where there was a real shortage.  I worked in housing in the 90s and like many of my colleagues thought a labour govt would be true to their principles! 

[sarahbilly 1]

hugh, you forgot to mention thatcher gov rolled the policy out and did not reinvest the revenue, because a later gov. followed her policy dos'e that excuse her?

[Hugh]

I didn't say they should build more, I said they should have stopped selling them. At least they could have stopped selling any more in areas where there was a real shortage.  I worked in housing in the 90s and like many of my colleagues thought a labour govt would be true to their principles!

Sorry GrannyMac for my mistake.

[Hugh]

hugh, you forgot to mention thatcher gov rolled the policy out and did not reinvest the revenue, because a later gov. followed her policy dos'e that excuse her?

Not reinvesting the council house sales in new houses was wrong who ever it was. If Margaret Thatcher intended building more council houses she should have said so it would have won her votes. Thank fully Camerons made a start but should have started sooner.

[sarahbilly 1]

when she made her policy, she led people to believe she would reinvest hugh, but as i explained, she did not.

[Johned]

I recall it was Peter Walker erstwhile Housing Minister, I think, who gave the lady the idea it would be cheaper and more economical for the ratepayers if council houses were sold off to sitting tenants at a discount and, I seem to recall that originally you were not allowed to sell them on for at least five years.  Agreed that prior to that, in our local authority a tenant could buy the property he rented from the council at the market price which was considerably cheaper than private properties.  I always felt it was fair to sell them to sitting tenants; perhaps the tenure should have been more than five years to stop speculation over resales.  I recall my elderly next door neighbour.  He was a WW1 veteran who had taken the house on in the early 1920s when new and he was first married and had invested a considerable amount of his own cash down the years, in improving the property but as he was wont to say the house would never be his! 

[Citizen68]

Under the Right to Buy, at first you had to hold on to the property for five years or - if you sold it - repay in full the discount you had been allowed. Then it was reduced to three years (two for leasehold flats) by a further Housing Act. If you sold sooner, you repaid a proportion of your original discount.


I am in some moral sympathy with the idea that a tenant of many years' standing should be entitled to buy their home. However, what was overlooked was that in many cases the rent for public sector properties had been heavily subsidised, and repairs etc. were normally fully met by the landlord. Some homes were sold for a derisory amount. Tenants would still have been pleased to have the opportunity to buy but at a more realistic price.


I also knew people in the private sector whose landlords had taken rent for up to forty years, and had never been nigh or by their properties, let alone done any repairs. The tenants had often had to pay for everything themselves. It was those people who deserved to be able to buy their homes, but have never had the legal right. Private landlords have never been as regulated as councils and housing associations, and many are still getting away with a lot.

[GrannyMac]

Spot on C68. The sad thing now is in many desirable areas, especially in London, ex council properties have been bought up by private landlords and those tenants pay far more for a lesser service than their neighbours who have been lucky enough to rent from the council.