Social housing in the UK provides homes for 8 million people - but its prospects appear increasingly grim. With the decline of a manufacturing base and the rise of financial capital in western economies social housing has appeared to the ruling class as an under-capitalised asset; its potential 'real' value remaining unrealised by its protection from full exposure to market valuation.
Since the 1970s successive governments have shown a growing hostility to the concept of state-subsidised housing for the lower orders. Earlier Tory regimes had implemented limited 'right-to-buy' schemes for some council tenants, and a 1970s Labour government had considered similar schemes but abandoned it as too controversial and potentially divisive a policy for the Party(1). Coming to power in 1979, Thatcher's Tories had no such qualms or obstacles and tenants snapped up their council homes at knock-down prices in this first wave of mass buy-outs (with the discounts offered at the time for many tenants mortgage payments worked out cheaper than continuing to rent).
