Right to buy II
June 14th, 2010
From time to time while researching housing matters I come across such erudite and informed articles that I treasure them and what follows is one such which encapsulates the both the recent history of and present crisis in housing. It covers so much of what I think is presently wrong with the housing situation in this country.
oldonmk2
13 Jun 2010, 12:06PM
Subsidized housing is not simply council housing, or housing assn properties. Many houses built in the private sector from 1945- 79 benefitted from tax relief on mortgage interest payments!
In what is now Milton Keynes an employed person with a £6000 mortgage in 1973 had the same tax relief as a person with six children of school age. And the bigger the mortgage, the greater the tax relief.
The problem is that around 50% of the population had wages which would not allow them to buy a house back then, and that figure has probably risen to 70-75% today. Then the building of council houses – flats made it possible for people to have a reasonable life. The alternative was private sector housing in bedsits which typically took more than 35% of the average wage in rent for one dilipidated room without running water, and any security of tenure.
There was also those houses lost by bombing, and thousands of men returning from the forces, or as my parents did, having to move from a requisitioned house we had been parked in because my father was required for war work in a factory design office out in the sticks. These displaced persons did not have the cash to buy property, [forces pay for the rank & file rarely exceeded £3 per week! They were the majority! Not much to risk your life for.
Council housing before “right to buy” was largely self financing, the asset lasting near a century or more, would ultimately pay for itself. Right to buy wrecked this system. Which up to the time of Thatcher was largely accepted by both parties. Indeed some of the most pleasant council estates were erected by Tory councils in semi rural areas. Thatcher set out to destroy local govt, by “reform” of the rating system, and planning control. She largely succeeded. Now we have the consequences of Her and her acolytes Major, Blair and Brown.
https://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/13/cuts-threaten-affordable-new-homes
Lastly if you’re wondering where Right to buy I is it’s linked here
UPDATE: This from the Green Benches
https://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/2011/10/tories-sold-320bn-of-council-homes.html