Property rights and relations: The purchase of council housing

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the issue of council house sales from the starting point that the social relations of gender and generation are potentially as interesting in the sociology of housing as are class relations. This analytic approach is developed in the first section of the paper. The second part presents data from a survey of three groups of long‐standing residents in Sunderland: those who bought their council houses in the early 1970s; those buying under the Right to Buy legislation of the 80s; and those who had no intention of buying at the time of the survey. It discusses the social backgrounds of the three groups, the process of deciding whether or not to buy, the significance of the tenure change in their lives, and the broad political significance of those decisions. The concluding section argues that the purchase of council housing represents a highly specific tenure change in mid‐life, for a group of people bound by the class and gender relations of the post‐war generation.