Your post is based more in your political ideology than in history, WanChai. To liken the current UK to Victorian Britain is a bit silly.
There is no evidence that selling off council houses has had a significant impact upon housing costs.
Home ownership is a relatively new concept to the UK. It started at a very low base (30% or so) in actual - as opposed to imaginary - Victorian Britain and grew slowly through the 20th Century. It passed the 50% mark in the 70s and then continued to expand until 2001, when it peaked at around 70%. It has now fallen back to around 65%.
The price of housing has little, if anything, to do with the sale of council housing stock – it comes down to the failure of the market to deliver sufficient housing for the rapidly growing number of households in the UK and particularly the rise which occurred when the ‘baby boomer’ generation fledged in the 80s and 90s. That same mismatch between supply and demand has made buying property to rent out an attractive investment.
There is no evidence that privatising the utilities caused an increase in price. There is no reason to believe that a state owned monopoly can deliver cheaper energy than a competitive market (albeit the functioning of that that market is hampered, to a degree, by the seeming reluctance of many customers to act rationally and shop for cheaper deals). As it stands, energy prices in the UK are cheaper than in many of our European competitors:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48284802
If people chose to sell of their BT shares then that was their choice. In reality, the public remain significant owners of BT via their pension funds.
Thatcher’s policies didn’t kill off major industries as you assert. Manufacturing in the UK began to fall off in the 1960s. The same thing happened in most Western economies as we became uncompetitive in comparison to emerging economies. The UK may have taken a particular hit as markets in the former Empire in which we had received favourable treatment became far more competitive. Manufacturing remains a significant sector of the UK economy, but it remains at risk of being lost if other countries become a more attractive place to operate as seems to have happened with Dyson.
If you wish to see the UK attract more high quality jobs, you need to make it a place that is attractive to do business. The Labour Party policies that you seemed strangely reluctant to comment upon yesterday do the exact opposite and will discourage companies from choosing to invest here. The announcement of the nationalisation of part of BT on Friday is particularly stupid – stupid to a degree that even I didn’t think Labour would go. Why would companies now choose to invest in the UK when they know that they are at risk of having their investments seized at the whim of John McDonnell?
P.s. If your chum is paying £250 per month on utitilites then he is probably doing something wrong.
Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by KerrAvon
