Yes, that was the peculiar and plain wrong aspect of Thatcher’s housing act. In principle giving people the chance to buy and own the house they may have lived in for years is not bad. Provided the housing stock sold was replaced. But the act specifically excluded that. For me, that was the then tory government seeking to increase private renting, push up house prices and allow the already wealthy to get more wealthy. The worst form of capitalism - using money to finance money making rather than using money to invest in the creation of a business that makes things and creates jobs. Bad government.
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Things got better under Wilson after 18 years of Tory misrule, thanks to Profumo 
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Not all some of those people had lived in those houses for many years paying rent and it was still their home .
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Yes, but look at the way she closed those pits. She broke Britain as a cohesive society with her belligerent approach and failed to achieve any of her ideological aims. Britain has never recovered from her divisive tactics.
At exactly the same time the Hawke/Keating government was transforming the Australian economy and recession proofing it by taking the people along with the Accord.
Basically they actually achieved by peaceful consensus what Thatcher only dreamed of doing which was to remove the power of the unions and reform the economy - not bad for a Labor government eh?
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Even Arthur Scargill tried to use the right to buy policy even though the flat did not belong to him.
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The late 70s were so hypocritical . 
But at least you knew where you stood 
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I do recognise the joy and security owning their home brought to many working class people and I don’t begrudge them one bit for taking the opportunity
But they were sold a public asset at a discount. Now they own those houses they’ll leave them to their children, who may well not have qualified for social housing, or they’ll sell them at a profit
That means those houses will never be available again for social housing
And as the councils weren’t allowed to use the money to build more social housing, it achieved exactly what Thatcher and the Tories wanted
Which was to destroy and put an end to social housing supply so that private landlords could exploit the poor with high rents, non secure tenancies and poor conditions
As always with them, it was about supporting the chumocracy and the wealthy by exploiting the poor and working class 
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Not all private landlords exploit their tenants .
There were labour governments after Thatcher did they build new social housing ?
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That is how capitalism works, unrelated events stimulating the wider economy, that is how folks in general are better off (financially) than previous generations, we can slag this principal off all day but, we’ve all benefitted, one way or another. Imo
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Indeed, they do not! All of my highly vetted tenants are very happy to rent from me and I have an ever-growing list of applicants waiting just in case one decides to change location.
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Similarly, my son has property that he rents out and he has had the same tenants for many years - they wouldn’t rent from him if he were a bad landlord!
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No doubt a large percentage of those were labour supporters. Maybe a sly move by Maggie to garner some Torry votes. 
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Oh, without doubt, it was a cynical ploy to win votes, populism at it’s worst
Unprincipled and amoral are the definitions of Tory policy and Thatcher 
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But this was done by selling off public assets at a loss, for a popularity vote and to decimate the social housing stock
A free handout from taxpayers money at the expense of those in dire need of homes
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I agree, but it worked fiscally
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A lot of evil things do, giving old ladies a good kicking and nicking their purse works fiscally, but it doesn’t mean the people who do it aren’t shites
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I know, its hard not being a hypocrite.
Hey, Maree is not wrong here (in my view). No hypocrisy.
The UK is on so many levels a mess and one (not the only) causes of this has been the Thatcherite policies applied by her, and the subsequent Tory governments. I’d very much like an informed debate on that notion - not empty accusations.
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Note, I agreed with Maree.
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Thanks, sorry for any misinterpretation.
In the meantime, can I be annoyed by the treatment of one of my company pension schemes? I noted that about 20k seems to have dropped from its value and the managing company just says “hey, market stuff”