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No - 'right to buy' is not related to the UK's housing crisis, aside from the fact it depleted social housing stock (which is a separate issue that should not h
by matthewmacleod 12y ago
No - 'right to buy' is not related to the UK's housing crisis, aside from the fact it depleted social housing stock (which is a separate issue that should not have been allowed to happen).
Offering cut-price sales of social property to council tenants is an amazingly powerful tool for giving people ownership over their communities.
- pjc50 12y agoDepletion of the social housing stock was an explicit objective of the policy. It was part of a transfer of power from the labour-controlled ""collectivist"" councils. That's why they were prevented from spending the revenue on new housebuilding. It gives people ownership of their houses, not their communities. It's a micro version of the general privatisation problem of selling public assets at a discount for the benefit of private interests; it's just a variant that everyone's allowed a crack at, like the royal mail shares.