ABSTRACT
The privatisation of housing by Conservative and Labour governments in recent years has taken broadly two forms: first, the selling off of council houses to their tenants; and second, and in part to facilitate rehabilitation, the disposal of much of the council stock to housing associations, trusts and private companies either for renting or for resale. To some observers, the whole political and ideological purpose of privatisation has been to ‘dismantle public rented housing and to promote private ownership and management by all available means’ (Daniel, 1987). It was as though the government had a pathological hostility towards council housing and believed that once the municipal landlord was removed from the frame most housing problems would vanish.
