Right to Buy

The Housing Act 1980 gave tenants in the United Kingdom the Right to Buy their home at a large discount.  Gerald Kaufman, then in the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet and a former Environment Minister himself, said the Act would "not provide a single new home and [would] deprive many homeless people or families living in tower blocks from getting suitable accommodation".Paul Balchin, Housing Policy: An Introduction (Routledge, 2002), p. 188.

More than 2 million homes had been bought by 2024.  Very few homes to rent had been built to replace them. 

References

Category:Housing in the United Kingdom