Right to buy allowed social housing tenets in council owned houses to buy the house at a discount. It was a policy aimed at increasing the number of home owners but has proved divisive. It certainly worked well for those that took up the offer and were able to get their start on the housing ladder which would have otherwise been difficult. Some of the most gentrified areas of cities were once council house estates.

In my personal opinion it would have been great if the money from the sales went to the councils to reinvest in the social housing stock however that is not what happened. The result has been a decline in council properties and plenty of arguments about who is most deserving to be on the waiting list for the slowly dwindling supply.

We do have housing associations which are meant to fill the gap but their impact has been mixed.