End the sell-off of affordable homes
Why does the UK have a lot fewer social homes than it used to?
In 1980 Margaret Thatcher introduced the right to buy scheme which allowed people living in social homes to buy them at a discounted rate. The idea was to turn the UK into a nation of home-owners,the reality has been a disaster for our housing system, reducing the pool of social homes and deterring councils from building more.
Since the introduction of right to buy the proportion of socially rented homes in England has almost halved, and as social homes were sold off, governments failed to make sure new ones were built. We need to stem the loss of our social homes and encourage councils to build new ones.
Find out more in our new policy paper, coming soon…