Some say this is where the housing crisis started.
This is 39 Amersham Road, Harold Hill, an end-of-terrace house on the almost-edge of London. It was built in the 1950s on former farmland as part of a huge low-density London County Council overspill estate. And on 11th August 1980 it was here that Margaret Thatcher came for tea, for a photo opportunity and to hand James and Maureen Patterson the deeds to their council house.
The Housing Act 1980 transformed social housing in Britain by enabling council tenants to buy their properties at an enormous discount. It was seen as a quick way to increase the number of property owners, raise aspirations and nudge former Labour voters into becoming Conservatives. Anyone who'd lived in their council house for at least three years received a 33% discount on the market price and for tenants of 20 years standing that increased to 50%. With house prices relatively affordable at the time this was a very generous and accessible offer, and within a decade 1½ million council houses had been sold off.
It wasn't necessarily the best option for low-paid workers, who suddenly found themselves paying mortgages higher than their former rents and responsible for the upkeep of properties that weren't terribly well built in the first place. It was also a one-way ticket. Councils were forbidden from investing monies gained on building further social housing - it all went to the Treasury - and so the national stock of council housing inexorably ebbed away.
Amersham Road is a pleasant residential meander just far enough from the A12 to be peaceful and quiet. It has freshly-mown verges and a decent patch of riverside meadow where deer are sometimes seen. Its houses are bedecked with satellite dishes, solar panels, ornamental lanterns, catflaps and motion sensors, plus enough variation in front door styles to confirm that the council is no longer in charge of decor. Pensioners are not afraid to doze in their front gardens. Gnomes and England flags are present but not commonplace. Cars get washed on Sunday mornings. Ocado delivers. Parking is not a problem.
Number 39 now has replacement windows and a porch with diamond lights, plus a white van parked outside and a burglar alarm just in case. I thought it had an extension bolted onto one side but it turned out that's a small bungalow separately numbered 41. It still has that council house vibe but that's down to its lowbrow brick construction, and it did at least avoid the pebbledash some of its neighbours received to introduce some architectural variation. And because this particular property has become iconic in the story of Right to Buy, a number of journalists have kepttracks on comings and goings over the years and it turns out the first homeowner wished she'd never bought it.
1962: The Pattersons move in, paying rent to the Municipal Borough of Romford 1980: After 18 years they qualify for a 40% discount. They put down a deposit of £5 and buy the house for £8,315. 1996: Problems meeting soaring mortgage payments lead the couple to divorce. Unable to meet her bills, Mrs Patterson is forced to sell up. The house sells for £55,995, technically a massive profit but after paying off the mortgage she only has enough left to move into a caravan. 2001: The Bradys relocate to Leigh-on-Sea and sell the house for £101,500 (an 81% profit in five years). 2004: The Bacons sell the house for £145,000 (a 43% profit in just over two years). 2007: The Shinglers sell the house for £183,000 (a 26% profit in three years). 2013: The Masters sell the house for £180,000 (the first owners to make a loss). 2016: The latest owner sells the house for £290,000 (a 61% profit in three years).
Heaven knows how much it's worth now, given that Crossrail is just about to open nearby, but the 2-bed terrace immediately across the road is currently on the market for £350,000. That'd be 42 times more than the Pattersons paid 42 years ago, confirming there's no investment better than bricks and mortar, especially when the government hands it to you at a hefty discount.
But the story's not quite as simple as that. 39 Amersham Road wasn't the first council house to be sold off, it was the 12,000th. The policy had been around a lot longer than that, indeed the first council house the GLC sold off was a few streets away in Sheffield Drive way back in 1967. What was new was that the policy was now mandatory for all councils whether they wanted to sell or not, and of course those massive discounts for existing residents. Margaret Thatcher came to Harold Hill purely to launch her seismic changes, which days earlier had passed into law, because you can't beat a photo opportunity with a super-grateful family.
Councils have been hobbled on housing ever since, financially unable to fund significant schemes of their own and mostly reliant on twisting the arms of private developers to incorporate something 'affordable' or for social rent. We can't go back to 1980 and preserve the social housing stream, but maybe if we could our current hyperinflated property bubble might never have happened... and the Pattersons might be a lot happier too.
