Thatcherite Ideology, Housing Tenure, and Crime: The Socio-Spatial Consequences of the Right to Buy for Domestic Property Crime

However one views it, the changes to housing tenure in the 1980s were pronounced and have had enduring effects in terms of the housing market. In this paper, we throw light on the relationship between housing tenure and the experience of property crime in and around what might be referred to as domestic environments (i.e. people’s homes). In so doing, we explore the ideological positions which both of the (then) main political parties had adopted towards housing during the 1970s (during the build up to the sale of council housing) and the ways in which the legal framework surrounding housing was modified in order to effect these ideas at, quite literally, ‘street level’. Using the General Household Survey, the British Crime Survey and the British Social Attitudes Survey, we examine the general relationship between housing tenure and crime and explore how these unfolded both in terms of time (i.e. an historical analysis) and social space (i.e. in terms of the socio-spatial location of these crimes).