Thatcher’s right to buy policy is celebrated but here’s the cost: losses to us all of £194bn and a fractured society | David Madden

The housing problem in the UK has become so pervasive that it can sometimes seem natural and eternal, the ever-present background to British life. But it’s important to remember that specific political projects and policy choices brought about the housing crisis – and continue to maintain it.

A new report from the thinktank Common Wealth tallies up some of the continuing costs of one of the culprits: the right to buy, Margaret Thatcher’s signature social policy. It demonstrates that the right to buy has amounted to a massive giveaway of public resources, and one of the largest privatisations in British history.

Focused on England, the report’s figures show the enormous scale of the public assets that local government was forced to give away. Since the policy’s introduction in…