Certainly in one favourite seaside town of ours, any ex council properties may be sold only to people who've been living/working in the area for a specified period. At least 3 years, IIRC.
Council properties were in fact being sold off well before Thatcher, though I agree not on the same scale. A dd's ex council house was bought by the previous owners in 1971 - well before Maggie. (For almost exactly one percent of the price dd paid! - as we found out from a good old nose on the Land Reg.)
I agree that it was a misguided move , but TBH who on earth would have imagined house prices shooting into the stratosphere, as they did later? And I have to say that at least one staunch Labour-voting friend of mine was only too happy to buy hers, where she'd lived for 40 years.
Given how often there are moans from Labour about the evils of selling off of council property, why on earth didn't they stop it while they were in power? They had plenty of time in which to do so.
I suspect that the reason they didn't, is because they thought it would lose them votes.
Alphabetical girls and boys names January 2024
Water Pollution -“ A National Disgrace”? A case for renationalisation?