Selling the Welfare State: The Privatization of Council Housing

Council house sales, a much debated issue for many years, is now a policy in the process of implementation, the effects of which are being felt in a number of areas and are giving rise to concern. This book considers the whole question of council house sales and looks at how the debate about privatization has emerged historically. It discusses the so-called "marginalization" of council house tenants and explores the impact of council house sales on the private sector, where a more complicated, more stratified market now exists. It examines the privatization of council housing in the wider context of the restructuring of the welfare state and it argues that the item of most serious concern is that many residual council tenants are also victims of the restructuring process in other ways, in that they are also suffering from the cutbacks in other services.