Council House - Decline

Decline

Council housing declined sharply in the Thatcher era, as the Conservative government encouraged aspiration toward home ownership under the Right to buy scheme.

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 1980s Housing Act offering a discount price on their council house. The Right to Buy Scheme allowed tenants to buy their home with a discount of up to 60% of the market price for houses and 70% for flats, 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 "right-to-buy" was popular with many former Labour voters and, although the Labour government of Tony Blair tightened the rules (reducing the maximum discount in areas of most housing need), it did not end the right-to-buy. Labour did relax the policy forbidding reinvestment of sales proceeds.

Some councils have now transferred their housing stock to not-for-profit housing associations, who are now also the providers of most new public sector housing. Elsewhere, referendums on changing ownership, in Birmingham for example, have been won by opponents of government policy.

The current position is that council housing is a more and more residualised and stigmatised sector, with the term 'council' increasingly used as a pejorative. Whereas in its early years, council housing was an acceptable option for much of the population, it is now increasingly an option only for those reliant on social security.

In some parts of the country, especially northern Britain, some council housing is virtually unlettable. Council housing stock has sometimes been used to house those seeking refugee status ('asylum seekers'), who have no choice in their accommodation. In the south and in London in particular, demand still massively outstrips supply.

The Wakefield district council found itself unable to maintain its supply of council housing and transferred it all to a housing association, in 2004; this represented the second largest stock transfer in British history. Housing rented from the council accounted for about 28% of the district and around 40% of the actual city of Wakefield.

Other than Wakefield, districts that maintain large amounts of council housing include most inner London boroughs with Southwark, Hackney, Islington, Camden and Lambeth having the highest proportions/amounts. Also, Barnsley, Corby, Easington, Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Birmingham. Many districts of the country have less than 10% of housing rented from the council; the national average stands at 14%. - more statistics are available as of the 2001 census although some have transferred to housing associations since then.

Council estates have often been stereotyped as a source of high crime rates, though similar problems can occur in areas of private housing.

As mentioned earlier, many council housing estates have already undergone partial or total redevelopment, while more schemes are in the pipeline.

These include North Peckham in London, Castle Vale in Birmingham, Stockbridge Village in Liverpool, Blakenhall Gardens in Wolverhampton, Harden in Walsall, Galton Village in Smethwick, Camp Hill in Nuneaton and Hateley Heath in West Bromwich.