Thatcher-era political dogmas are getting in the way of Britain’s need for more housebuilding and more social housing It is not the duty of government to provide every citizen with the perfect home , but it is a symptom of failure when tens of thousands are unhoused. New government figures show 13,850 additional households officially entered that category in England between April and June this year – a 5% increase on the previous quarter. This conforms to an upward trend since 2010 in the full range of housing deprivation. In London, where the problem is most acute, charities have reportedly given out tickets for night buses as a means to keep people warm in the absence of hostel beds. The facts alone ought to prick ministers’ consciences. They might also dwell on past damage this issue has inflicted on Conservative reputations. In the mid-1990s homelessness was an emblematic cause , galvanising public perceptions of Tories as devotees of a callous, sink-or-swim attitude to material disadvantage. Mindful of that enduring taint, David Cameron wants to cast his party as an engine for social advancement. In housing policy, the flagship measure for this purpose is the extension of a “right to buy” to properties let by housing associations. This is meant as a reanimation of the spirit of 1980s Thatcherism: the transformation of public-housing tenants into private home-owners, mobilising to great political effect the aspirational ethos
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