HOUSING POLICY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: CONSTRUCTIONS AND CONTRADICTIONS
Mike Seal
The post-war consensus on housing was broken sharply by the Conservative administration of 1979 to 1997. They sought to "reinvigorate the private sector". The 1980 Housing Act and subsequent legislation severely reduced housing subsidies, by 50 per cent in real terms between 1979 and 1996, and introduced the tenants' right to buy council housing.
However, local authorities were not allowed to spend the capital receipts on new housing and local authority house building plummeted from 107,000 in 1978 to 37,000 in 1996.
At the same time the 1980 Act deregulated private housing, introducing short-hold tenancies, and broke the link between fair and regulated rents in favour of market rents. While there were sporadic attempts to invest money in the private sector, attempts at re-invigoration were largely in the form of "freeing up the market" and offering tax cuts for investors. The government also decreased the availability of renovation grants for the private sector.
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