Published by Hellium
by Katerina Nikolas on 02 October 2010

 

When the Thatcher government introduced the right to buy scheme for council house tenants, the best of the council house stock was bought up. Some neighbourhoods underwent much improvement as previous tenants became more committed within the communities and new pride in their homes was unleashed, leading to improvements in properties. Although the right to buy scheme is still in place it less successful today, as far more households in council properties live in disadvantaged areas and subsist on low incomes. Social tenure policies were introduced to address this imbalance.

As more council house estates became excluded from the mainstream, policy makers in the UK feared that the country could follow the American example of developing ghettos on one hand, and gated communities on the other. A policy of social tenure was meant to diversify communities and thus produce a more healthy social mix and dynamic, whilst giving greater opportunities to those living in social housing, the term council housing having been dropped.

Studies showed that …