Thatcher's Right to Buy split my estate. Now its days could be numbered
The UK's Right to Buy scheme, introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1980, is facing potential reform under the current Labour government. While the policy helped many working-class families build wealth, critics argue it significantly depleted the nation's social housing stock.
Why it matters
The policy is a central pillar of British housing history and its potential end reflects a major shift in how the government manages public housing assets.
Thatcher's Right to Buy split my estate. Now its days could be numbered
Image source, Getty Images By Tarah Welsh Housing correspondent Growing up in a council flat in the 1980s and 1990s, my mum would often point out homes that tenants had bought from the council. You could usually tell just from looking. A plain wooden door had been replaced with something fancier. New windows had appeared. Sometimes there was a porch or pillars outside the front door.
Those houses were bought under the Right to Buy scheme - arguably the most consequential housing policy of my lifetime. It was introduced in 1980, three years before I was born, when Margaret Thatcher's government gave council tenants in England the legal right to purchase their homes at a discounted price.
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