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PolicyAnalysis: the Privatisation of Council Housing
The privatisation of councilhousing is intrinsically tied to the broader privatisation process of the1980's that, together with North Sea oil, constituted the basis of governmentfinancing under the Thatcher regime. However, it is important to note that privatisationwas, and remains, a political ideology every bit as much as an economic action.Privatisation is synonymous with Thatcherism and a pragmatic approach topolitics that is able to move away from rhetoric to embrace reality with easeand a certain degree of political effectiveness. The key, therefore, tounderstanding the current policy process with regards to the privatisation ofcouncil housing is to note the essential continuity between Thatcher's ToryParty and New Labour, particularly concerning domestic economic affairs. Whetherthe original policy was in fact designed to reduce the gap between rich andpoor (to liberate the poorest members of society from the urban post warpoverty trap) is a matter of sifting through government propaganda and is stillcertainly very much open to debate. State employees, for instance, would give awholly different answer to the media and independent watchdogs. However, forthe purposes of this essay, judgement is not required; instead analysis willfocus upon the evolution of the policy from the 1980's to the present day tosee how affordable rented accommodation is fast becoming a commodity ondiscount in the UK as quasiprivate landlords step into the vacuum created bythe erosion of the responsibilities of the municipal authorities.
First, a description and definitionof the policy must take place with a brief overview of the tools in place toensure the safe transition of property from state to private hands. Privatisationis a central governmental policy that requires local authorities to comply inthe selling of council property to private landlords. Yet the framework throughwhich social policy reforms were historically tackled changed irrevocably when thestructure of municipal government was fundamentally alerted during the 1980's,as Jones and Kavanagh (2003:226) explain.
In 1986 the metropolitan councilswere abolished by Margaret Thatcher, who considered them wasteful as well asLabour strongholds; their functions were distributed downwards to otherauthorities.
One of the ways in which Thatchersought to combat the traditional Labour stranglehold on the working classes wasto give council tenants the opportunity to purchase their council homes at areasonable price; the 'righttobuy' policy as it was known at the time. It wasa classic shortterm policy, the catalyst for an entire political culture that isstill very much rooted in political expediency because, while tenants took upthe option to buy their homes in their thousands, the problem shifted to thepart of the population who were dependent upon rented accommodation for shelter.The option to buy council property was not realistically an option for thoseunable to work, the elderly and indeed everyone mired in the welfare systemunable to earn a wage acceptable to government property price fixers. Anunderclass has thus been prevalent since the late 1980's that is dependent uponrented accommodation but, at the same time, is increasingly ostracised from themainstream of the UK housing market. The key point to bear in mind is theexpediency of the initial reform; one that was designed to keep the Tories inpower more than it was concerned with the plight of the poorest members ofBritish society.