The recent death of Margaret Thatcher brought to mind one of her longest lasting legacies which is the demise of the social housing stock. By that I mean housing stock owned by local authorities.

Since the 19th Century, council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well- built homes on secure tenancies at reasonable rents to primarily working class people.

During the Second World War, almost four million British homes were destroyed. After the war there was a major boom in council house construction.

Council housing declined sharply under Thatcher, right, as the Conservative Government encouraged aspirations to home ownership under the Right to Buy Scheme.

The Localism Act brought to an end the obligation of the local authority to discharge its homelessness duties by an offer of social housing. From December 2012, the council may now discharge its homelessness duties by the offer of a private sector assured shorthold tenancy with a minimum term of 12 months. The Localism Act obliges the council to identify an appropriate pool of accessible housing.

Councils will continue to operate allocation schemes and bidding systems so that people can access social housing, which will mostly be of the housing association variety. For those lucky enough to be allocated social housing either by the waiting list or bidding system, there will available new flexible tenancies which will have minimum terms of two years. There will no longer therefore be council tenancies or housing association tenancies ‘for life’. Further, any new secure tenancies will have more restrictive rights for succession and only the tenant’s spouse or civil partner would have the right to succeed. There will be no right of succession for another member of the tenant’s family.

The new statutory guidance identifies the Government’s priorities as being to encourage councils to ensure that social homes go to their “house hunting heroes” ie “people who genuinely need them”, such as hard-working families and those who are looking to adopt or foster a child in need of a stable family and those service families whom under the Military covenant are entitled to “get the priority for social housing they deserve.”

For people who find themselves homeless through no fault of their own – and this could be due to redundancy, ill health or fleeing violence and for people who may previously have been home owners or indeed social housing tenants – there is no longer the expectation that the housing authority will secure permanent housing for them.

They will be faced with temporary private lettings and having to move on when they come to an end.

Children may have to move school on an annual basis and there will be little incentive for parents to seek a stake in a community which they are likely to have to leave after 12 months.