An article in The Times on June 20 asserted that proposals to give council tenants the right to buy their homes had helped sweep Margaret Thatcher to power in 1983. In a letter published on June 22, Alistair Lexden corrected this statement:
Sir, The right-to-buy was first proposed by Ted Heath at the October 1974 election (“Tories carried on with right-to buy despite dire warnings of £5bn cost”, June 20).
Overcoming her initial scepticism, Margaret Thatcher repeated the pledge in 1979. It was at that election, not in 1983 that the policy helped her “sweep to power”. Michael Heseltine described it as “the single most important factor” in 1979 apart from the winter of discontent.
In April 1983 the Lords threw out legislation to extend the policy to tenants of housing associations, the plan that has now been revived.
LORD LEXDEN
House of Lords