ABSTRACT
The election in 1979 of a radical Conservative Government was fuelled by an ideology that rejected State intervention and placed market forces as the determinant of survival. Emphasis was placed on the individual taking responsibility for their life with a limiting role for the State. The Conservative Government saw the voluntary sector as enhancing this role and funding by Central Government in the 1980s increased by 90 per cent in real terms (Charities Aid Foundation 1989, p. 5). Part of this philosophy was to also curb the power of local authorities, the principal providers of personal welfare services. The impact of these changes cannot be underestimated as the case of public housing illustrates. Forest and Murie (1988) estimated that the sale of council houses was financially the most important in the privatization programme, raising more money than any privatized former nationalized industry.
