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Labour’s Plan to scrap permitted development rights

The right-to-buy your council home, if you were a sitting tenant, was a key Conservative policy introduced in the 1980 Housing Act by Margaret Thatcher. All of a sudden, people who had never had the option before could realistically think about owning their own home. But of course, just like today, people preferred some types of housing over others, such as a detached house over flat in a high-rise block. So, over time, as people bought the homes they once rented from their local councils, the authorities were left with a depleted housing stock of less than desirably properties. The once populist, profitable policy, has left a disastrous legacy affected today’s social housing market.