Change is Brewing in England: The Right to Buy Faces Jeopardy, and It's About Time

Significant changes are underway in England as the longstanding Right to Buy policy, which allows tenants to purchase their rented homes, is now under threat. This shift could herald a critical turning point in the country's approach to housing rights and policies.

Thatcher's Right to Buy policy is widely regarded as her most controversial social engineering effort. Labour's leadership must now address the growing opposition to this policy that they can no longer ignore.

More than a decade after her death and 34 years after her departure from Downing Street, Margaret Thatcher's influence still lingers. Following Liz Truss’s emulation of the Iron Lady, Rishi Sunak has also been likened to Thatcher, drawing parallels as "the grocer’s daughter and the pharmacist’s son." Last December, Keir Starmer even praised Thatcher for unleashing Britain's entrepreneurial spirit. This fixation reflects a quintessentially British blend of confusion and self-torment: it appears Thatcher’s legacy is often invoked as a solution to our current problems, despite many of the UK’s current crises originating from her policies.

One of Margaret Thatcher's most enduring and controversial legacies is the Right to Buy policy. This iconic program allowed tenants of council houses and flats to buy their homes at a discount, fostering what Conservatives herald as a property-owning democracy. Since its introduction in 1980, over 2 million properties have transitioned from public to private ownership. However, strict limitations on how councils could use the sales proceeds to fund new housing have led to predictable outcomes: an average net loss of 24,000 social homes per year since 1991. This has exacerbated the housing crisis, significantly impacting the stability of millions of lives.

Right to buy is making a resurgence in political discussions, as seen in the undue controversy surrounding Angela Rayner. The uproar over her purchasing a former council house with a 25% discount in 2007 and selling it eight years later illustrates a misunderstanding of the policy’s intent—to enable working-class financial gain—and reveals a proprietary attitude about who should benefit from it. Conservatives continue to view the policy as a testament to Thatcher's legacy, and critique left-leaning beneficiaries for perceived hypocrisy.

The policy also features in the backstory of Keir Starmer’s campaign director, Morgan McSweeney. A detailed profile by journalist Tom McTague highlights McSweeney's insistence on Labour maintaining its traditional working-class support, rooted in his experiences in Barking and Dagenham. From 2006 to 2010, this area saw a rise in the British National party, a shift partially attributed to the negative consequences of right to buy—many former council homes were bought by absentee landlords and deteriorated. McSweeney learned the importance of detailed political strategies from initiatives like the “eyesore gardens policy,” where the Labour council cleaned up neglected properties and charged the landlords, demonstrating effective local governance.

Despite pledging to reduce discounts, Labour continues to support the Right to Buy policy, likely because challenging it fundamentally could raise difficult questions about the party's commitment to "aspiration." However, an increasing number of influential voices within Labour and other parties believe the policy should either be significantly scaled back or entirely abolished. In Scotland, the SNP government already abolished Right to Buy for new tenants and completely ended the policy in 2014. Following Scotland's lead, the Labour administration in Wales also moved toward abolishing it. At the 2019 election, Labour's UK manifesto included a promise to end Right to Buy in England, signaling a potential shift in policy direction.

In 2023, London Mayor Sadiq Khan requested that Whitehall delegate the authority to suspend the Right to Buy in London. Recently, Labour's Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, urged the government—and implicitly his own party—to remove the Right to Buy mandate from new-build flats and houses to support his initiative to construct 10,000 new social homes. Burnham's call for change, alongside his efforts to re-regulate buses, indicates his commitment to rectifying some of the most contentious political actions of the 1980s.

There's a growing momentum for change concerning the Right to Buy policy. In the past month, two major policy reports have made similar recommendations for reform. The most recent study by the New Economics Foundation highlighted alarming statistics: 40% of homes sold under Right to Buy are now rented out in the private market, with that figure soaring to 86% in Brighton. The increased discounts, which rose to a maximum of 70% in 2014, underscore one of the policy’s critical flaws: it often results in financial losses for councils on the homes they construct.

Andy Burnham likened attempts to address the housing crisis without reforming Right to Buy to trying to fill a bathtub with the plug removed. Despite the urgency of the situation, there seems to be a reluctance to confront the issue at the national level. "It’s an incoming government that would determine the rules around Right to Buy," stated Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor. "We have no plans to reform that."

The consequences of selling council houses are particularly severe in urban areas, where it erodes the sense of stability and community continuity. The entry of buy-to-let landlords transforms neighborhoods, with tenants often becoming transient and disconnected from their surroundings. For example, in a report from 2016, I explored a former council development near Old Street roundabout in London known as Quaker Court. What were once family homes had been converted into rentals for students or bought by individuals like a lone American who used his home for high-end financial trading. Such changes signify a broader shift, leading to a palpable silence, school closures, and the dissipation of community bonds. This is the evolving reality in many neighborhoods.

The negative impacts of the Right to Buy policy are being felt across the entire UK. Julian Brazil, the Liberal Democrat leader of the South Hams district council in Devon, recently highlighted this issue. He acknowledged those who benefited from the scheme but emphasized the detrimental long-term effects due to the government's failure to replace the sold houses. "Once a council house is gone, it’s gone," he stated, pointing out the significant loss of millions of council houses that now need to be replaced.

Surprisingly, many Conservatives still support the idea of extending Right to Buy to housing associations, a proposal reintroduced by Boris Johnson in 2022, despite its controversial nature and lack of implementation. The logic is clear: if the goal is to build and maintain social housing, selling it off counteracts this objective.

There's a growing argument for devolving decisions on Right to Buy to local politicians who understand their communities' needs and can tailor housing policies accordingly. They would also be directly accountable to their electorate, potentially leading to more responsive and suitable housing strategies. Given the diminishing influence of Thatcher's legacy and the shifting political landscape, it’s unlikely that such changes would face substantial opposition. The time has come to critically reassess and potentially end this radical policy, closing a chapter on what has been a profoundly impactful piece of social engineering.

Source: the guardian