Social Policy: Housing

Question 1

What did Thatcher want to create with her housing policies ?

Answer 1

A ‘property owning democracy’ rewarding thise that shared values she admired such as hard work and intiviative above all else self reliance including buying a property

Question 2

How did Thatcher think her policies would steer people away from socialism ?

Answer 2

It would give people a stake in their communities and therefore less likely to support socialism
- explains initial decision to allow long term council tenants the right to buy their home

Question 3

What social policies (big changes) did Thatcher make ?
What is this known as

Answer 3

• Housing Act 1980:gave councils tenants of more than three years the right to buy their home at a substantial discount to market price according to how long they had lived there
• by 1988 the average was 44% to a maximum 70%
• Second: it legislated councils cannot use the revenue towards more housing which made it impossible to increase the housing
  market rapidly due to the strict
  limits

This whole thing is known as the ‘right to buy’ scheme, it’s a trade mark Thatcherite policy

Question 4

How can the policy be defended in terms of its effect on sales ?

Answer 4

It encouraged home ownership
- Annual sales, previsouky peaked at 45k in 1972 reached 174,697k in 1982
- by 1997 1.7 million homes had been sold off
- earned the treasury more than £47bn in sales

Question 5

How can the policy be defended for the individual ?

Answer 5

• For many buyers the policy was life changing as it allowed council tent ants the opportunity to sell up and move which had previously been difficult
• home ownership jumped from 55% of households in 1979 to 71% in 2003

Question 6

How did the housing policy reshaped electoral voting ?

Answer 6

• affluent working class contained many swing voters many of which were buyers
• they switched alliegance to the Conservatives as the policy was perceived as a way to ‘change your fortunes’ according to Vicky Spratt
• ‘ A British dream’

Question 7

How can the policy be criticised in terms of its effect on council housing ?

Answer 7

• the policy of right to buy coincided with the decline of social housing construction
• this meant that, since no effort could go towards replacing these, the housing stock decreased
• The effects of this can still be felt today with only 4.4 million compared to 5.5 million units available in 1979

Question 8

How can the policy be criticised for its long term impact on population ?

Answer 8

Designed for a stable/ falling population when there was a large sum of cheap housing
- neither proved true by the 2010s which it had been argued laid the foundations for the modern day housing crisis
- 1.2 million waiting for housing today

Question 9

How can the idea of a ‘property owning democracy’ be challenged ?

Answer 9

• In the long run the policy merely boosted the private rental sector
• proportion of owner occupiers had fallen back around 65%