Quote Originally Posted by wookie70 View Post
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They were by no means perfect but at least the rent was affordable and there wasn't any no fault evictions etc. It would be interesting to see if the councils winding down their in house provision of building and other trades coincided with the housing stock deteriorating. My view is that the Tories always take out investment, privatise in-house provision to increase cost and reduce service, and then sell off what belongs to the public at vastly reduced cost. The only difference in housing was there were many benefactors that were working people. The big reason though was to make home ownership the norm which made striking harder and drove up house and rent prices so the rich and banks etc would profit. Giving the workers something was a bitter pill worth swallowing for the long term gain to the rich. Many of those ex-council houses are again being rented but for a huge mark up and without the security that they once had. I'm glad that it is becoming less economical to allow others to buy houses for you. I just wish it was a deliberate policy rather than an outcome of the mismanagement of every part of society and the economy
I'm not sure of Edinburgh but in West Lothian most towns had a council yard which employed tradesmen of all skills, plasterers, roofers, joiners, decorators, plumbers, electricians etc those yards are now all but gone and they were huge employers, ironically the land they were on has now been sold off to private sector housing.

Serious question: would you be comfortable with all private landlords putting their properties up for sale i.e. only social housing left for rentals and what would you think the outcome would be?