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Right To Buy was IMO one of the very worst decisions the Thatcher government made. And that is saying something.
Mind you that scheme was abused by many on the left:
maveco-
In fairness to Scargill he would have been close to retiring by then, so was just sensibly planning for his future like any responsible adult. He may well have been skeptical of the index-linking of his pension vs the true level of inflation, and thought a stable, illiquid asset would provide a hedge.
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Or one of the best, from their point of view.
Get lots of people owning property, and convince them that it is a valuable asset (hide the fact that if the price of property goes up consistently, then the increase in specific value of a property, doesn't go up, as you always need somewhere to live).
Then they will never support Labour because that means higher taxes which means more pain on a mortgage.
hugo7
branwen
Yeah, kind of my thoughts on it.
My parents bought their own places (and now have kept 2 of them as a pension). They worked to get there though. Our holidays were always at grandparents, as we couldn't afford (looking back on it) to go abroad. Good times, yeah, did we overtly struggle, nope, were we privileged, yes.
But my parents are certainly narked by my Aunt thinking that being given her council house for a pittance, which she then extended, whilst taking several holidays abroad a year, and then sold for a small fortune, and retiring early is her due. They certainly feel mugged off, and blame the Tories (AFAICT) for that.