Between 1971 and 2002 home ownership increased from 49 to 69 per cent, with most of the increase occurring in the 1980s. The increase has levelled off since then. The 'right to buy' scheme introduced in the early 1980s may have contributed to the increase in home ownership, as it allowed local authority tenants to buy their own home.
Corresponding to this, the percentage of households renting council homes increased from 31 per cent in 1971 to 34 per cent in 1981, but then gradually declined during the 1980s to 24 per cent in 1991. The percentage continued to decrease and in 2002 14 per cent of all households rented from the council.
The decline during the 1990s may in part be a result of the transfer of housing stock from local authorities to housing associations (or Registered Social Landlords [RSLs]), which occurred at this time.
The percentage of households renting from a housing association increased from 1 in 1971 to 3 per cent in 1991, continuing throughout the 1990s to 7 per cent in 2002.
Another contributing factor to this rise may be the concentration of public funding for new housing in the RSL sector since the mid-1990s.
The percentage of private renter households decreased from 19 per cent in 1971 to 10 per cent in 1995. Since 1995 there have been no significant changes and it has remained relatively constant (between 10 per cent and 11 per cent).
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Households