Home ownership grew from 55% of the population in 1980 to 64% in 1987. By the time Margaret Thatcher left office in 1990 it was 67%. 1.5 million council houses were sold by 1990, by 1995 it was 2.1 million and as a result of the Right to Buy the Treasury received £28 billion.
How many council houses have been sold since 1980?
Since 1980, over 300,000 council homes in London have been sold through Right to Buy, most of which were not replaced. In the absence of adequate public sector funding for new homes, this has contributed to an overall decline in the social housing stock available to Londoners.
Where did the money go from selling council houses?
Half the proceeds of the sales were paid to the local authorities, but the government restricted authorities' use of most of the money to reducing their debt until it was cleared rather than spending it on building more homes.
How many new council houses were built by the Labour government between 1945 and 1951?
The eventual bill, under the post-war Labour government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, agreed to deliver 300,000 units within 10 years, within a budget of £150m. Of 1.2 million new houses built from 1945 to 1951 when the programme officially ended, 156,623 prefab houses were constructed.
During the height of council building, in the 1950s, councils built on average around 147,000 homes a year. In the past 10 years councils have averaged building around 1,400 homes a year. This is due to a number of Government restrictions and lack of funding available.
Margaret Thatcher council house scheme set to COLLAPSE due to MAJOR property shortage
Who sold off council houses?
The Housing Act 1980 (c. 51) was an act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom that gave five million council house tenants in England and Wales the Right to Buy their house from their local authority. The Act came into force on 3 October 1980 and is seen as a defining policy of Thatcherism.
Increasing financial difficulties, including rising populations, higher demand on social care and reduced government grants, as well as limitations on annual council tax increases, are reportedly putting local authorities under pressure.
Bombing during World War Two was estimated to have destroyed 500,000 homes and many were left badly damaged, especially in cities like Coventry and London. Many houses needed modernisation, for example 500,000 homes did not have an indoor toilet in 1950.
Social housing in this country dates back to the late 19th century, but the 1919 Housing and Planning Act saw the government embark on the first comprehensive plan to build social housing.
Of the 4.4m units of social stock owned by RPs, private registered providers own 2.8m units while local authority registered providers own 1.6m units. The 64 for-profit providers reported 20,831 units of social stock in March 2022, compared to 13,671 in March 2021.
Can you buy a council house in the UK? Yes, it is possible to buy a council house or flat in the UK. However, this does not apply to everyone. To be eligible, you must have been a council or public sector tenant for at least three years.
Investor-owned homes now make up about 20% of the country's 86 million single-family houses. But despite headlines about institutional investors dominating the market, most of those properties are actually held by smaller-scale landlords. About 85% of investor-owned homes are held by those with 1 to 5 properties.
How many years after buying a council house can you sell it?
If you sell your home within the first five years of owning it, you will have to pay money back to the council. The amount you have to pay back will depend on the sale price of the property. The percentage will depend on the amount of discount you received when you bought your home and how soon you sell it.
In April 1980 the average council rent was £7.71. By April 1981 it had risen to £11.39—an increase of 48 per cent. The growth of average manual and non-manual earnings in that period was only 13 per cent. so people paying unrebated rent are very much worse off.
Since the 1980s, non-profit housing associations (HA) became more important and subsequently the term "social housing" became widely used — as technically, council housing only refers to properties owned by a local authority — as this embraces both council and HA properties, though the terms are largely used ...
Almost 3,000 homes were sold every day across the UK last year. New research has revealed that in 2024 the annual total of UK property sales increased by 6.8%. New research from Moverly reveals that almost 3,000 homes were sold every day in the UK last year, marking a 7% increase in the average estate agent's workload.
Public housing contains a much higher percentage of elderly households than the overall rental housing stock. Only 14 percent of all rental housing is occupied by the elderly. Households with children comprise 43 percent of public housing. A slight majority of these families (56 percent) are single-parent households.
Grenfell Tower was part of the Lancaster West Estate, a council housing complex in North Kensington. The 24-storey tower block was designed in 1967 by Clifford Wearden and Associates, and the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council approved its construction in 1970.
While London was bombed more heavily and more often than anywhere else in Britain, the Blitz was an attack on the whole country. Very few areas were left untouched by air raids.
In order to pay these exorbitant costs governments did many things. They raised taxes, they introduced rationing and other personal restrictions, and most importantly they borrowed heavily from other countries. But after all of that, they still had to raise yet more money and they did that through war bonds.
The destruction of Warsaw was practically unparalleled in the Second World War, with it being noted that "Perhaps no city suffered more than Warsaw during World War II", with historian Alexandra Richie stating that "The destruction of Warsaw was unique even in the terrible history of the Second World War".
Councils provide hundreds of services in your area, but funding cuts and growing service demand means that council spend is increasingly focused on social care. In 2023/24 less than 40 per cent of councils' total spend was left for services such as street cleaning, waste collection and leisure centres.
According to UNISON's research, the five councils with the biggest predicted shortfalls for 2025/26 account for a half-billion pound funding gap. These are Hampshire County Council (£132m), Bradford City Council (£126m), Birmingham City Council (£119m), Somerset Council (£104m) and Leicester City Council (£90m).
Properties which might be exempt include: condemned property. property which has been legally re-possessed by a mortgage lender. property unoccupied because the person who lived there now lives elsewhere because they need to be cared for, for example, in hospital, in a care home or with relatives.
