The Housing Act (1980)

The Housing Act (1980)


Key Points

  • Date: 3rd October 1980
  • The Act gave 5 million council tenants the right to buy their home
  • Discounts (up to 50%) dependant on how long the tenant had resided in the property
  • The 'legal right to buy their homes' was integral to Margeret Thatcher's 1979 election manifesto
  • The Labour Party oppossed The Act but by the 1987 General Election they had dropped their opposition

History

Conservative Manifesto 1979

The Sale of Council Houses

"Many families who live on council estates and in new towns would like to buy their own homes but either cannot afford to or are prevented by the local authority or the Labour government. The time has come to end these restrictions. In the first session of the next Parliament we shall therefore give council and new town tenants the legal right to buy their homes, while recognising the special circumstances of rural areas and sheltered housing for the elderly. Subject to safeguards over resale, the terms we propose would allow a discount on market values reflecting the fact that council tenants effectively have security of tenure. Our discounts will range from 33 per cent after three years, rising with length of tenancy to a maximum of 50 per cent after twenty years. We shall also ensure that 100 per cent mortgages are available for the purchase of council and new town houses. We shall introduce a right for these tenants to obtain limited term options on their homes so that they know in advance the price at which they can buy, while they save the money to do so.

As far as possible, we will extend these rights to housing association tenants. At the very least, we shall give these associations the power to sell to their tenants.

Those council house tenants who do not wish to buy their homes will be given new rights and responsibilities under our Tenants' Charter"1


See also

!Council Housing!
!Acts of Parliamet (UK)!
!The Conservative Party!
!Graph of New Housing Construction by Tenure!


External links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_Act_1980
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/RevisedStatutes/Acts/ukpga/1980/cukpga_19800051_en_1

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License