No surprise that speakers at the Lib Dem conference have been adamant that they want to see the right to buy suspended in their communities. They too must have seen the Guardian article of a few days ago which revealed that the government has “begun a review” of one of Margaret Thatcher's most vaunted flagship policy.
The creation of a ‘property owning democracy’ – and the transformation of housing from a public service into a tradable commodity – is a legacy which has lasted a generation. It is also one that neither Blair nor Brown never quite seemed able to disown. Indeed, it was a concept with which New Labour appeared to be quite at home, so to speak.
Are we really about to witness one of the political ironies which crop on occasion whereby the wrong party does the right thing? After all, it took a tory government to introduce the concept of “statutory unfitness” for private housing and a properly funded grants system – and a Labour government to make the system unworkable by slapping VAT onto the building trade.
Meanwhile, back in Wales, the earlier fuss has died down from the announcement in July that the Assembly government has the legislative power to introduce “measures on housing”. The expectation is that ministers will make good in coming weeks on their proposal to “suspend the Right to Buy in areas of housing pressure” and assume “a broad range of intervention powers to strengthen the regulation of Registered Social Landlords”.
We can't wait to see how the tories vote.
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