User:Brian McNeil/Thatcher's "right-to-buy"; the Scottish housing market 30 years after

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In 1980 the Conservative UK government of then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed legislation allowing all tenants living in council-owned properties the "right-to-buy". Many took advantage of this, and the considerable discounts available for those previously renting from the council for several years.

Thirty years later, following tectonic shifts in the British political landscape, the devolved Scottish Parliament has a five-year moratorium on tenants exercising the right-to-buy. Wikinews undertook an investigation into the changes upon learning that, at the start of 2010, there were at least 10,000 entries on the council house waiting list in the West Lothian area alone.