Council house sales and the electorate: Voting behaviour and ideological implications

Abstract

Abstract The voting behaviour and general ideological values of samples of purchasers and non‐purchasers of council houses were investigated against the general theoretical debate concerning the relationship of tenure and political attitudes. It was hypothesised on the basis of this debate that purchasers would have been more likely than non‐purchasers to switch from Labour to Conservative between 1979 and 1983 and that they would be more likely to favour privatised and individualistic attitudes in general. It was found that purchasers were indeed more likely to vote Conservative than non‐purchasers, but that desertions from the Labour Party were more in favour of the Alliance than the Conservatives. Purchasers were more likely than non‐purchasers to favour privatised and individualistic political attitudes, but when controlling for social class this relationship was restricted to manual social classes only.