Homeless children are being endangered in unsuitable temporary accommodation as a result of Margaret Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy – but what will our Labour government do about it?
Here’s the situation, as described by the BBC:
Councils are exposing homeless children to serious health and safeguarding risks by housing them in unsuitable temporary accommodation, an inquiry by MPs has found.
MPs said a “crisis in temporary accommodation” in England had left a record 164,000 children without a permanent home.
The inquiry concluded many children were living in “appalling conditions” and suffering significant impacts to their health and education as a result.
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The inquiry heard evidence of “egregious hazards” to children, including serious damp, mould, and mice infestations, and families living in temporary housing for years.
Florence Eshalomi, the Labour MP who leads the committee, told the BBC evidence showing the deaths of 74 children had been linked to temporary housing “should shock all of us”.
“That should send alarm bells ringing,” she said. “What was most shocking as well was the fact that over 58 of those young children were under the age of one. Where have we gone wrong?”
Those deaths are the direct consequence of a deliberate political strategy set in motion more than four decades ago.
The crisis is not an accident or an unforeseen mishap – it is the inevitable result of Margaret Thatcher’s radical housing policies, which systematically dismantled the social housing safety net and handed it over to private landlords and property developers.
The suffering of homeless families today—trapped in dangerous, overcrowded, and often degrading conditions—is the price paid for decisions made in the 1980s to prioritise private profit over public welfare.
Selling off the future: the right to buy disaster
Thatcher’s government introduced Right to Buy (RTB) in 1980 with the declared aim of creating a “nation of homeowners.”
On the surface, it appeared to offer working-class families an unprecedented opportunity to purchase their council homes at a discount, turning tenants into property owners.
What was not made clear at the time was that these homes would not be replaced, nor would protections be put in place to prevent them from becoming private rental assets.
In fact, the Tory government of the day put measures in place to prevent new, affordable council homes from being built: Right to Buy legislation did not mandate that local authorities or the government replace sold-off council housing and the government severely restricted councils’ ability to build new homes by tightening finances and banning them from using RTB sales receipts to fund new social housing
Fast forward to today, and around 40 per cent of ex-council homes sold under Right to Buy are now in the hands of private landlords, often rented out at far higher rates than council tenants ever paid.
Some councils have been forced to rent back their own former homes at inflated prices just to provide emergency shelter for homeless families.
The policy that was sold as a ticket to homeownership instead fuelled the rise of the buy-to-let empire, deepening inequality and ensuring that wealth accumulated at the top, while those at the bottom were left to scramble for what little affordable housing remained.
The collapse of social housing
Before Right to Buy, local councils built and managed hundreds of thousands of homes across the UK, offering secure and affordable accommodation to working-class families.
Once Thatcher’s policy took hold and councils were barred from using the proceeds of home sales to build new housing, the stock of social housing plummeted and demand far outstripped supply.
Successive governments—both Conservative and Labour—failed to reverse the damage, leaving Britain with an ever-shrinking pool of publicly owned housing.
The result? An explosion in homelessness, skyrocketing rents, and a growing number of families forced into unsafe temporary accommodation.
A deliberate shift to private profit
This was not a mistake. It was a calculated political move to shift housing from the public to the private sector, transferring wealth from the many to the few.
Thatcher and her government knew that removing publicly owned housing would create greater dependence on private landlords, who stood to make massive profits.
By starving councils of funding to build new homes, they ensured that the market, not the state, would control the country’s housing supply.
For the wealthy, this shift was a bonanza. Buy-to-let investors scooped up ex-council homes at bargain prices, then rented them out at double or triple the former rates.
Property developers reaped the benefits of gentrification, snapping up old estates and turning them into high-end flats.
Meanwhile, ordinary people—especially the poorest families—were left with fewer and fewer options, forcing them into precarious and often dangerous living conditions.
The human cost: homeless children in danger
The crisis playing out in 2025 is the logical conclusion of this decades-long attack on social housing.
Families who would once have had access to safe, affordable council homes are now trapped in a brutal housing market, where rents are unaffordable and social housing lists stretch endlessly.
Councils, stripped of the resources to provide permanent solutions, have been left to warehouse families in temporary accommodation—hostels, B&Bs, and overcrowded flats—many of which endanger the health and safety of the children forced to live in them.
Reports of children suffering in cramped, unsafe conditions, miles away from their schools and support networks, are not simply tragic stories of individual hardship.
They are the direct consequence of Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy—policies that dismantled the foundations of secure housing and placed profit above people’s basic right to shelter.
And they are policies that governments since have failed to undo, despite overwhelming evidence of their devastating impact.
Can this be fixed?
Reversing the damage of Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy requires more than just tinkering around the edges. The UK needs a massive reinvestment in social housing, with local authorities given the power and funding to build thousands of new council homes every year.
Rent controls, stronger tenant protections, and restrictions on the resale of ex-council properties are all necessary to curb the unchecked power of private landlords.
The housing crisis is not inevitable; it was created by political choices, and it can be undone by new ones.
The suffering of homeless children today is not just a national disgrace—it is the legacy of a government that put ideology and profit above basic human needs.
The question now is whether politicians will finally take responsibility and act, or whether they will continue to let Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy dictate the future of Britain’s most vulnerable families.
Yet, even now, there is little sign of a real commitment to reversing this crisis. Angela Rayner, the current housing minister, has announced plans to build 1.5 million new dwellings by 2029, but these will be delivered in partnership with private developers.
This means most new homes will likely be market-rate or “affordable” housing (which is often still unaffordable for those on low incomes) rather than genuine social housing.
This won’t solve the social housing crisis because:
- Private developers prioritise profit, meaning most new builds will be for sale or expensive private rent, not council homes or housing association properties at social rents.
- “Affordable” housing is often not affordable – government definitions of “affordable” (80 per cent of market rent or shared ownership) are still out of reach for many.
- Labour has not committed to a large-scale council house-building scheme, meaning the social housing stock will remain inadequate.
- And Labour has not pledged to end Right to Buy, meaning more social homes will be sold off without replacement.
This means the housing crisis will persist for low-income renters, homelessness and overcrowding will remain high, and social housing waiting lists (currently at more than 1.2 million households) will not shrink significantly.
If Rayner wanted to do something that worked, she would support a massive house-building programme (such as happened after World War Two), end Right to Buy (or demand one-for-one replacements), and properly fund social housing instead of relying on private developers.
Without a serious investment in publicly owned social housing, there is little chance that Rayner’s current plan will solve the crisis—developers will prioritise profit, not affordability.
Instead of fixing the problem, Britain risks continuing along the same path that led to this catastrophe in the first place.
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Margaret Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy: how a deliberate policy put homeless children at risk
Homeless children are being endangered in unsuitable temporary accommodation as a result of Margaret Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy – but what will our Labour government do about it?
Here’s the situation, as described by the BBC:
Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!
Those deaths are the direct consequence of a deliberate political strategy set in motion more than four decades ago.
The crisis is not an accident or an unforeseen mishap – it is the inevitable result of Margaret Thatcher’s radical housing policies, which systematically dismantled the social housing safety net and handed it over to private landlords and property developers.
The suffering of homeless families today—trapped in dangerous, overcrowded, and often degrading conditions—is the price paid for decisions made in the 1980s to prioritise private profit over public welfare.
Selling off the future: the right to buy disaster
Thatcher’s government introduced Right to Buy (RTB) in 1980 with the declared aim of creating a “nation of homeowners.”
On the surface, it appeared to offer working-class families an unprecedented opportunity to purchase their council homes at a discount, turning tenants into property owners.
What was not made clear at the time was that these homes would not be replaced, nor would protections be put in place to prevent them from becoming private rental assets.
In fact, the Tory government of the day put measures in place to prevent new, affordable council homes from being built: Right to Buy legislation did not mandate that local authorities or the government replace sold-off council housing and the government severely restricted councils’ ability to build new homes by tightening finances and banning them from using RTB sales receipts to fund new social housing
Fast forward to today, and around 40 per cent of ex-council homes sold under Right to Buy are now in the hands of private landlords, often rented out at far higher rates than council tenants ever paid.
Some councils have been forced to rent back their own former homes at inflated prices just to provide emergency shelter for homeless families.
The policy that was sold as a ticket to homeownership instead fuelled the rise of the buy-to-let empire, deepening inequality and ensuring that wealth accumulated at the top, while those at the bottom were left to scramble for what little affordable housing remained.
The collapse of social housing
Before Right to Buy, local councils built and managed hundreds of thousands of homes across the UK, offering secure and affordable accommodation to working-class families.
Once Thatcher’s policy took hold and councils were barred from using the proceeds of home sales to build new housing, the stock of social housing plummeted and demand far outstripped supply.
Successive governments—both Conservative and Labour—failed to reverse the damage, leaving Britain with an ever-shrinking pool of publicly owned housing.
The result? An explosion in homelessness, skyrocketing rents, and a growing number of families forced into unsafe temporary accommodation.
A deliberate shift to private profit
This was not a mistake. It was a calculated political move to shift housing from the public to the private sector, transferring wealth from the many to the few.
Thatcher and her government knew that removing publicly owned housing would create greater dependence on private landlords, who stood to make massive profits.
By starving councils of funding to build new homes, they ensured that the market, not the state, would control the country’s housing supply.
For the wealthy, this shift was a bonanza. Buy-to-let investors scooped up ex-council homes at bargain prices, then rented them out at double or triple the former rates.
Property developers reaped the benefits of gentrification, snapping up old estates and turning them into high-end flats.
Meanwhile, ordinary people—especially the poorest families—were left with fewer and fewer options, forcing them into precarious and often dangerous living conditions.
The human cost: homeless children in danger
The crisis playing out in 2025 is the logical conclusion of this decades-long attack on social housing.
Families who would once have had access to safe, affordable council homes are now trapped in a brutal housing market, where rents are unaffordable and social housing lists stretch endlessly.
Councils, stripped of the resources to provide permanent solutions, have been left to warehouse families in temporary accommodation—hostels, B&Bs, and overcrowded flats—many of which endanger the health and safety of the children forced to live in them.
Reports of children suffering in cramped, unsafe conditions, miles away from their schools and support networks, are not simply tragic stories of individual hardship.
They are the direct consequence of Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy—policies that dismantled the foundations of secure housing and placed profit above people’s basic right to shelter.
And they are policies that governments since have failed to undo, despite overwhelming evidence of their devastating impact.
Can this be fixed?
Reversing the damage of Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy requires more than just tinkering around the edges. The UK needs a massive reinvestment in social housing, with local authorities given the power and funding to build thousands of new council homes every year.
Rent controls, stronger tenant protections, and restrictions on the resale of ex-council properties are all necessary to curb the unchecked power of private landlords.
The housing crisis is not inevitable; it was created by political choices, and it can be undone by new ones.
The suffering of homeless children today is not just a national disgrace—it is the legacy of a government that put ideology and profit above basic human needs.
The question now is whether politicians will finally take responsibility and act, or whether they will continue to let Thatcher’s fatal housing legacy dictate the future of Britain’s most vulnerable families.
Yet, even now, there is little sign of a real commitment to reversing this crisis. Angela Rayner, the current housing minister, has announced plans to build 1.5 million new dwellings by 2029, but these will be delivered in partnership with private developers.
This means most new homes will likely be market-rate or “affordable” housing (which is often still unaffordable for those on low incomes) rather than genuine social housing.
This won’t solve the social housing crisis because:
This means the housing crisis will persist for low-income renters, homelessness and overcrowding will remain high, and social housing waiting lists (currently at more than 1.2 million households) will not shrink significantly.
If Rayner wanted to do something that worked, she would support a massive house-building programme (such as happened after World War Two), end Right to Buy (or demand one-for-one replacements), and properly fund social housing instead of relying on private developers.
Without a serious investment in publicly owned social housing, there is little chance that Rayner’s current plan will solve the crisis—developers will prioritise profit, not affordability.
Instead of fixing the problem, Britain risks continuing along the same path that led to this catastrophe in the first place.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (bottom right of the home page). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Follow Vox Political writer Mike Sivier on BlueSky
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:
The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
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