User:Shriya175/Public housing in the United Kingdom

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Right to buy
Laws restricted councils' investment in housing, preventing them subsidising it from local taxes, but more importantly, council tenants were given the Right to Buy in the Housing Act 1980 offering a discount price on their council house. Proposed as policy by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and carried out under the remit of Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine, the Right To Buy scheme allowed tenants to buy their home with a discount of 33–50% off the market value, depending on the time they had lived there. Councils were prevented from reinvesting the proceeds of these sales in new housing, and the total available stock, particularly of more desirable homes, declined.

The policy resulted in a selective uptake, with middle-aged and married skilled workers with mature children being the most likely to purchase their homes. '''In effect, those in extreme poverty did not have the option to avail the offer, exacerbating the social and economic inequalities prevalent in the sector. Furthermore, the price of private increased due to the rent deregulation policies that were implemented simultaneously. This made it increasingly difficult for those excluded from the policy to afford alternatives, leaving them with the least desirable residual sector of social housing. Over time, changes were made to the Right to Buy policy, especially for specific regions but overall, the policy reinforced the stigmatized position of public/social housing as a 'last resort', moving away from the previous welfare-statist ideals.'''

Financialization
'''In recent years, the financialization of housing in the UK has contributed to issues in the public housing sector. Under the wider neoliberal agenda, the deregulation of mortgage finance and the liberalisation of credit was implemented, creating systemic risks as 'sub-prime borrowers' bought homes with loans they could not realistically pay back. In the U.K, financialization became increasingly prominent after the 1990s as securitization and foreign finance were introduced in the housing sector. One of the key mechanisms of financialization was securitization, which allowed investors' mortgages to be sold as packages in the market, encouraging the imperative of profitability. Housing associations, which previously relied on government grants and private donations, could now access capital markets and sell bonds. However, this led to a shift in their focus from providing affordable homes to generating returns for investors. Financialization also led to an increase in buy-to-let mortgages, resulting in higher private tenancy levels and rising costs. '''

Public housing debate
Those who regard stable homes as a family's right see public housing differently from those who see it as welfare. They are comfortable that council housing was generally typified by unimaginatively designed houses with generously sized rooms. They could cope with aggravating estate rules that could forbid tenants "personalising" their houses.

'''The public debate around housing can be understood as the debate between housing as a commodity versus as a right. In the immediate aftermath of both World War I and World War II, reconstruction was required to improve the housing stock destroyed in the violence and consequently, the attitude towards housing sector in those periods was more rights-based. As a result, the initial years of the public housing sector witnessed an engaged role of the state, with legislation establishing an inclusive, affordable housing sector for the majority working classes. However, as a consequence of the post-war era of investment that encouraged homeownership, housing increasingly became commodified. A housing sector that treats housing as a commodity implies that it is subject to market forces and can be bought and sold in accordance with demand and supply.'''