Buying into the Iron Lady’s Dream

The Right to Buy as enshrined in the 1980 Housing Act was one of the biggest factors in changing Harold Hill after it was built in the 1950s. The change has been irreversible, although whether that it is beneficial or detrimental to the community is a debate that still continues today.
Harold Hill started as a completely council-owned housing estate, that is, the landlord was the municipal government which was initially the London County Council (LCC), then the Greater London Council (GLC) and then later the London Borough of Havering.
From 1967, but particularly from 1980, tenants have bought their own homes leaving council-owned properties now in a minority in Harold Hill.
The effects have made a fundamental difference, as former Labour councillors Dennis Cook and Del Smith note:

‘The vast change has been the Right to Buy that transformed vast rows of industrial rabbit hutches because people started to improve the front of their houses. The fronts of peoples houses were revolutionised by the Right to Buy – the place was transformed.'

‘I know people who voted Tory because they wanted to buy their house. They voted Tory just the once, bought their house, and that was that. A lot people did that and I can understand it because working class people had sod all, for decades past they had worked all their lives and after sixty or seventy years most of them had never even bothered to write a will. What would be the point with accumulated wealth of a few bits of furniture and a Sunday suit? Then all of a sudden somebody comes along and says, ‘I’ll give you half a house.’ If you are going to give away money then obviously people will take it and say, ‘Thank you very much’. And they did. Almost all of my friends and family started to buy their council houses at that time.’

Del Smith’s comment about giving money away is a reference to the massive discounts that were made available to tenants. From 1980 onwards there was to be a base 30 percent discount that, depending on the number of years resident in the property, rose to a maximum of 60 and 70 percent for house and flat tenants respectively.
There were attempts by various Conservative local authorities since the end of the Second World War to sell council houses.
Hornchurch County Council had attempted to sell their council homes in the early fifties, but had only managed to hive off six.
Beyond Havering, in 1967 Francis Frederick Griffin, the leader of the Tory council in Birmingham, published a hugely influential pamphlet called Selling Council Houses. Based on the experiences of Conservative rule in Birmingham, it was reprinted several times and eagerly read by a generation of Tory Town Hall activists.
As Griffin wrote, their policy was based upon the belief that government, both local and national, should have as little to do with peoples lives as possible:

‘We (the Tory council) determined that it was the function of the local authority to serve the people, not master them… We decided that the vital principle of local government was to interfere as little as possible rather than as much as would be tolerated.’

After seven months in power they had sold 2,101 homes, which included a reduction of up to 10 percent for long-term residents.
When the Tories gained control of the Greater London Council in 1967 they cut subsidies to council houses forcing rents to dramatically increase, but they also embarked on a path of allowing tenants to buy the homes they rented.
The first person to buy their council house in London was 44 year-old James Regan of Sheffield Drive, Harold Hill. He had moved to the estate from Stepney in 1953 and had lived in Sheffield Drive since 1958.
Earning £1,500 a year working for the London Electricity Board, he bought his house for £3,060 having earned a 10 percent discount because of the years spent living there. Instead of paying the inclusive rent of £3 12s, he put down a £60 deposit and was prepared to pay £4 7s. per week. After spending £1,000 on modifications to the house since he lived there, Mr Regan considered it a worthwhile purchase.
Desmond Plummer, the leader of the GLC, ceremoniously handed over a golden key to the new owner on October 4, 1967.
James Regan gladly excepted and furthermore resigned his membership of the Labour Party at the same time:

“I’ve been 20 years a member and 30 years a supporter… My thinking is still along socialist lines, but I’ve resigned because there’s so much local Labour hostility to council house sales.
It works out £2 extra to own this piece of England.
I’ve been a strong socialist since the thirties, but I see no wrong in buying my own home just because the council built it.”

Also in attendance on that day was Horace Cutler, the Tory Chair of the GLC Housing Committee, who had previously stated: ‘Are council houses really necessary any more? In my opinion, no. I believe that local authorities should get out of housing altogether.’
Obviously Horace Cutler saw James Regan as a part of his vision.
By 1970 the then Conservative national government allowed local authorities to give discounts of up to 20 percent for selling their houses. But with all these schemes there were restrictions. For instance, Birmingham council never allowed more than 10 percent of their housing stock in any particular area to be sold.
By the time of Margaret Thatcher’s 1980 Conservative government all such restrictions were removed and massive discounts off the market value were instituted in law. No council could now refuse to sell a property to its sitting tenant, hence, the Right to Buy. By the time of the 1983 general election over 500,000 tenants had brought their own home.
The Right to Buy brought a fundamental change to local society, not least in fracturing the community. Previously, every tenant had one enemy – the council. Now people’s problems were more personalised – everybody was seemingly fighting their own battles rather than the one big collective threat. Brenda Dreyer, a former vice-chair of the Harold Hill Tenants’ Association, views this change negatively:

‘I think that the downfall of Harold Hill started when they started selling the homes because all of a sudden you have a break in the community. You have people who suddenly have a chance they never thought they would have; to own bricks and mortar and they then considered themselves middle class. It was a breakdown and we had to change the name of the Tenants’ Association to the Tenants’ and Residents’ Association. But of course the residents never really supported us because they didn’t have the same problems.’

On August 10, 1980 the Tory Prime Minister, nicknamed the Iron Lady, visited Harold Hill. Her purpose was to visit the Patterson family who were the 12,000th household to buy their council home under her new legislation.
For an in-depth account of the life and views of Margaret Thatcher and an account of her visit to Harold Hill read [Margaret Thatcher: Reggae, Royalty and Riots]

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