Options
Selling off council housing 1980 - present. Was it a good idea?
ProgRocker
Posts: 1,325 Forum Member
✭✭✭
Posting about Margaret Thatcher in a recent thread reminded me:
Was her much lauded 'Right To Buy' scheme (or whatever it was) good for the UK?
Discuss.
Was her much lauded 'Right To Buy' scheme (or whatever it was) good for the UK?
Discuss.
0
Comments
Pushed up house prices (which was good for the rich) and meant less housing for those in need rather than those in greed.
'in greed'?
You don't think that people should be allowed to own their own homes and progress?
Under my New Economic Plan the government would engage in a massive council house building campaign which would be financed in part from the phased reduction in housing benefits paid for private properties.
Of course they should be allowed to own them, and if a government built loads of new council houses, more people would be able to afford private ones because there wouldn't be such great demand. There are very, very few people who actually benefit from high house prices.
Not really and certainly not council homes that were built so that everyone could have a home.
By buying a council home on the cheap you have helped raise rents and house prices.
That has helped no one other than yourself.
But social housing should never be for 'life'...ideally it's there as a stop gap until you improve yourself.
Everyone wants to improve themselves surely? You work...you earn...you have a home...you don't depend on the state for longer than absolutely necessary
It shouldn't be social housing but council housing. That's what we used to have when I was a lad. It kept house prices down, and everyone was happy, even the middle-class house buyers.
It's not so important to argue over what "should" happen, but what the result is in the real world.
The end of council housing meant massive inflation, followed by massive collapse, followed by inflation etc. It's not good.
Not at cut prices, no. Most people have to pay the market rate.
The nation's housing stock being sold well below market price, in order to create the short term illusion of a property owning democracy.
And it wasn't all Magge's fault - Labour-run unions were largely to blame, as was the labour party later on under Tony B and Gordon Brown for bankrupting the UK.
Of course social housing should be for life, that is the whole point of it.
How is buying a house improving ones self?
I want a home to live in, not to make money from.
I don't see it as depending on the state any more than people who work to buy a house have to rely on their job.
That is the truth. We are paying for it now.
I'm not old enough to know about some of those things
Yes they should have built more with the proceeds...but I think that it was right that people had the chance to own their homes.
There's no way a foreign owned company would put the welfare of this country ahead of its own profits.
But you're not paying for anything...you're getting the state to support your life..
I have respect for people who work hard to pay back into society...and if that means they have the opportunity to not depend on the state for housing...good.
Absolutely. No problem with that at all, as long as for every house that was sold off, another one was built.
You do have the right to own your own home, but you shouldn't have the right to own council homes.
If you want your own home, buy a privately built home for the extortionate cost it would have cost.
It's a home. What is there to pay for?
People are working hard just to pay for a home they could have had cheaply anyway.
You can't take the money or home with you when you die. It is a roof over my head and protection from the elements.
The tragedy was that we were lumbered with a Labour government that didn’t have a clue about how to keep up the good work.
Very short sighted and short term view that...owning a home brings security for more than yourself...your family
You're view is tainted by the fact that you've had everything handed on a plate to you..you've never had to put effort in
Difficult question really. I live in an ex-council house and without tennents having the right to buy, I would probably not have found a house within my price range.
The downside of course is that there are fewer properties available for 'social housing' as they call it. What a silly name that is!
Anyway, there's my answer - I don't really have one!