In the 1980s Thatcher introduced a new reform to change housing in Britain.

 The policy sponsored  the “right to buy”

 meant the sale of council houses.
 This term  ‘the right to buy’  the coupling of two words: right and buy,
- implies liberty and purchasing,
After 1915,
 a new Housing Policy was implemented (Ginsburg 1999, p. 226).
 Aim provide the “Respectable working class” with decent housing and was
to be regulated by the local authority.
 Meant new houses were to be built by the state
o “Slums” were to be cleared and the rent for the new council houses
was to be regulated by the local council.
o would provide a decent living situation. (Ginsburg 1999, p. 226).
o Council housing became an important part of the welfare state.

After 1918, at the end of World War I,

 Council Housing became an important political topic in Britain (Ginsburg 1999,
p. 230).
 The need for housing increased in the postwar era due  due to many
demanding a decent living after returning home from the war (Ginsburg 1999,
p. 230).
 When British soldiers returned home the campaign “'homes fit for heroes”
 meant private landlordism was pushed aside (Ginsburg 1999, p. 228).
 Lloyd George, a Liberal wanted to create a land fit for heroes.
 o the first one to spread this idea of public housing to support the
soldiers who came back from the front.
o Though, this idea was taken from the Labour party, and it was
supported by Labour (Ginsburg 1999, p. 228-230).
o time for council housing (Ginsburg 1999, p. 229-230)
o houses  decent houses and very popular
o the 1930’s more than a million homes were built and 80 percent of
those were council houses, built by the state (Ginsburg 1999, p. 229).
o In the beginning the concept had been to provide houses from
“respectable families” (Ginsburg 1999, p. 226) from the “working class”,
however the idea progressed into that it should be council houses “for
all” (Ginsburg 1999, p. 229-230).
o However, when the slums were cleared the houses provided for those
families who had been living in those arears were of lower standard,
compared to the council houses build for the families who were
financially in a superior situation, compared with those residents who
had been living in the slums (Ginsburg 1999, p. 231).
o Nonetheless the 1920s to 1970s  golden age of council housing.

Ginsburg:
 in 1979 could live in your own home in the UK, or you could rent for a
municipal home, a council house, or you could rent from a private home.
 Prior to 1979 it was up to the individual municipal authorities to allow the
residents to buy these homes
 but in 1980 Thatcher's government changed that (Ginsburg 1999, p. 236).
  One important factor the the British welfare state was in “crisis in the mid-
1970s” (Lowe 2005, p.317).
 In global context the Oil crisis caused a general economic crisis, which
effected most countries, including Britain (Lowe 2005, p.3).
 Prior to Thatcher the Labour government in this period responded to this
crisis by implemented a series of cuts, as seen with Heath as prime minister in
1970-1974, and Wilson in 1974-19 76) and again with Callaghan in 1976-1979
(Lowe 2005, p.317).
 Nevertheless there were concerns that the welfare state could not manage
the crisis and there was a major review of the welfare state (Lowe 2005,
p.319-320).
 Politicians question the nature of the welfare state, with its bureaucracy
and benefits, and the welfare state became a scapegoat for the economic
decline, and there was a longing for “Victorian values” (Lowe 2005, p.320).
 During the “winter of discontent” (Lowe 2005, p.323) Labour had a huge
decline in popularity (Lowe 2005, p.323-324), and the conservative party
won the election in 1979 (Lowe 2005, p.324).
 Thatcher the welfare system was morally questionable because it
transferred money from the diligent to the less diligent (Lowe 2005, p. 320).
o wanted to increase incentives for benefit recipients to obtain work and
ensure that only the truly needy received public assistance (Lowe 2005,
p. 320).
o the “Victorian values” (Lowe 2005, p. 320).

In the period of 1979-1983

 unemployment  three million people were without jobs (Lowe 2005, p.324).
  the victory in the Falklands War gave Thatcher a huge boost in popularity
(Lowe 2005, p.325).
 In The second term, 1983-87 Thatcher’s “to talk radical and act
conservative”, as seen with how she handed the miners’ strike, cuts in income
taxes, which fell from 83 % to 40 %, privatization of British Telecom and British
Gas, and the escalation in the sale of council houses, (Lowe 2005, p.325).

After housing policy in 1979:

 Thatcher  law that gave tenants the “right to buy” their houses at a price
cut, a discounts for tenants who choose to buy the council house they rented
(Ginsburg, p. 237).
 sell these houses at a discounted price, by taking the time people have been
living in this house.
 Between 1979 and 1987 this was an offer many people accepted
(Ginsburg, p. 237
 program, “right to buy” by far “the biggest of the privatization programs”
(Ginsburg, p. 237).
 sold to the tenants who were living in those areas Thatcher was getting rid
of state-owned assets.
A consequence of the scheme:
 homelessness on the rise (Ginsburg, p. 237).
 1988 there was a fall in house prices a problem for households with a
small income (Ginsburg, p. 239)
 in 1980 there were 76,997 council homes  in 1994 there were only 1,623
council homes (Ginsburg, p. 241).
work cited:
Ginsburg, Norman. Housing, in Page, Robert M., and Richard L. Silburn (eds.) British
Social Welfare in the Twentieth Century. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1999,
p. 223246.

Lowe, Rodney. The welfare state in Britain since 1945. 3rd ed. Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York, N.Y: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p. 315-339.

Sources:

Conservative Central Research Department briefing to No. 10 (“Housing Act comes

into force”), 30 Oct. 1980: https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/138577