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Originally Posted by DanaC
Out of interest, what do you guys think about the 'right to buy' policy the tories introduced?
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A deliberate attempgt to bring local govt. under central control. The 'right to buy' was on the one hand a carrot to the populace, in that it was an attempt to increase the perceptions of the new house-owners that they were now 'middle class' - the traditional Tory voting class. But the legislation had some nasty teeth. Though councils were obliged to sell to residents who asked for it, the council was forbidden to plough back the procedes of the sales into either maintence of existing housing stock or the building of new housing. Eventualy, the councils were starved of the income to maintain social housing stocks, and were forced into partnerships with profit-driven housing assosiations.