Policy Analysis: the Privatisation of Council Housing
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关键词:Policy AnalysisPrivatisation of Council Housing政策分析住房的私有化council housing
摘要:The cumulative effect of twenty years of council housing policy in factresulted in a greater divide in the richpoor axis in Britain; hence theestablishment of independent bodies such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation,dedicated to social policy research and urban redevelopment via public funding.
Policy Analysis: the Privatisation of Council Housing
The privatisation of council housing is intrinsically tied to the broader privatisation process of the1980's that, together with North Sea oil, constituted the basis of governmentfinancing under the Thatcher regime. However, it is important to note that privatisationwas, and remains, a political ideology every bit as much as an economic action.Privatisation is synonymous with Thatcherism and a pragmatic approach to politics that is able to move away from rhetoric to embrace reality with ease and a certain degree of political effectiveness. The key, therefore, tounder standing the current policy process with regards to the privatisation of council housing is to note the essential continuity between Thatcher's Tory Party and New Labour, particularly concerning domestic economic affairs. Whether the original policy was in fact designed to reduce the gap between rich and poor (to liberate the poorest members of society from the urban post war poverty trap) is a matter of sifting through government propaganda and is still certainly very much open to debate. State employees, for instance, would give awholly different answer to the media and independent watchdogs. However, for the purposes of this
essay, judgement is not required; instead analysis will focus upon the evolution of the policy from the 1980's to the present day to see how affordable rented accommodation is fast becoming a commodity on discount in the UK as quasiprivate landlords step into the vacuum created by the erosion of the responsibilities of the municipal authorities.
First, a description and definition of the policy must take place with a brief overview of the tools in place to ensure the safe transition of property from state to private hands. Privatisation is a central governmental policy that requires local authorities to comply in the selling of council property to private landlords. Yet the framework through which social policy reforms were historically tackled changed irrevocably when the structure of municipal government was fundamentally alerted during the 1980's,as Jones and Kavanagh (2003:226) explain.
In 1986 the metropolitan councils were abolished by Margaret Thatcher, who considered them wasteful as well as Labour strongholds; their functions were distributed downwards to otherauthorities.
One of the ways in which Thatchersought to combat the traditional Labour stranglehold on the working classes wasto give council tenants the opportunity to purchase their council homes at areasonable price; the 'righttobuy' policy as it was known at the time. It wasa classic shortterm policy, the catalyst for an entire political culture that isstill very much rooted in political expediency because, while tenants took upthe option to buy their homes in their thousands, the problem shifted to thepart of the population who were dependent upon rented accommodation for shelter.The option to buy council property was not realistically an option for thoseunable to work, the elderly and indeed everyone mired in the welfare systemunable to earn a wage acceptable to government property price fixers. Anunderclass has thus been prevalent since the late 1980's that is dependent uponrented accommodation but, at the same time, is increasingly ostracised from themainstream of the UK housing market. The key point to bear in mind is theexpediency of the initial reform; one that
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