Local homes for local people ?.

During my time sitting on the Council housing waiting list people have said to me that because I was born in Silverton I should have some sort of priority. The issue of council housing is one of supply and to prioritise local people for housing in any one area lets the relevant authorities off the hook. The basis of the problem lies in the policy of the Thatcher government, and one continued by Blair and Brown, of selling off council housing stock and refusing to adequately invest in replacing it. We now live in a world of increasingly mobile populations and one where we are told that we should be prepared to move to get better employment or life prospects. This means that Governments both local and national have to be prepared to treat social housing of all kinds as a priority and not just rely on the market to sort it all out. I suspect that the economic crisis which is now emerging both here and across most of the rest of the world is going to put state intervention in economic affairs firmly bsack on the agenda in housing as indeed in much else.