Thatcher's Right to Buy split my estate. Now its days could be numbered

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: Thatcher's Right to Buy split my estate. Now its days could be numberedPublished4 minutes agoImage source, Getty ImagesByTarah WelshHousing correspondentGrowing 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.

The Details

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. Supporters welcomed the chance for working-class families to own their own home and build wealth.

Critics argue it hollowed out the country's stock of social housing and contributed to today's housing crisis. Some of my neighbours "made a killing" from the policy, in the words of my mum. One bought an almost identical flat to ours in 1989 for £21,200, after receiving a discount of £18,800.

Eight years later it sold for £54,500. Five years after that it changed hands again for £143,000. (Notably, the person who made the most money from that flat wasn't the original council tenant - it was the people who bought it afterwards.

What Experts Say

)Image source, Tarah WelshImage caption, The writer grew up in a council flat in north London - and recently returned there, 25 years laterBut Andy Burnham doesn't like the policy. The Right to Buy scheme has seen various changes since its introduction in the 1980s, and Labour has weakened it significantly since coming to power in 2024. Then, in September, the prime minister told Labour's conference: "We will reform Right to Buy.

Not taking the right away from anyone in an existing home, but removing it from new homes. " This would help to keep council houses in public ownership "for generations to come", Burnham told delegates. He has previously compared trying to solve the housing crisis while continuing to sell social homes to "trying to fill a bath with the plug out".

More than 40 years after its introduction, Right to Buy remains a debate about political values as much as housing policy, balancing the home ownership ideal against the desire to preserve social housing for future generations. A 'property-owning democracy'Since 1980, more than two million homes have been sold through the scheme in England. In fact, about 40% of England's council housing stock has been sold through Right to Buy.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.