John Redwood Popular Capitalism Analysis

This source is an extract from John Redwood’s book Popular Capitalism which was published in 1988. The extract above discusses property ownership and how this can equate to freedom. On a whole, Redwood’s book explores economic growth on a worldwide scale and how the mechanisms that have been implemented in Britain can be transferred to other countries. Redwood’s focus on property ownership in this extract is relevant to the time as Thatcher’s premiership had focused on large scale privatisation and increasing the property owning democracy. The years prior to 1988 would have seen the impact of the 1980 Housing Act in which the ‘Right to Buy’ policy was implemented.
Redwood’s background up to this point highlights his political stance. He was a conservative whilst …show more content…
Richard Stevens argues this case in 'The Evolution of Privatisation as an Electoral Policy, c.1970-90'. He states that the ‘two foundation pillars of privatisation’ were ‘denationalisation and the extension of ownership’ and stresses that the sale of council houses were viewed as ‘symbiotic’ with denationalisation as part of the privatisation scheme. Although not a traditional example, the ‘Right to Buy’ effectively saw the transfer of business from public to private hands and thus fits into the privatisation narrative. Thatcher herself alludes to the ‘Right to Buy’ being based on the same principles of privatisation. In a 1981 speech to the Young Conservative Conference she stated “the perpetuation of large Council-owned fiefdoms means that millions… have no chance to acquire a capital asset for themselves or their children.” One of the key aims of privatisation was to reduce the economic responsibility of the government so that people could make their own capital and rely on their own money. With council house reduction, this was much more likely to happen in the realm of property ownership and not just