Does the Welfare State still have an obligation to house everyone who can’t afford to buy or rent their own home? Ever since Labour’s Nye Bevan proposed council houses for everyone after the second world war the politics of social housing have been shifting. The most significant change was Margaret Thatcher allowing council tenants the right to buy. But Since then successive governments have not spent the money on building the equivalent volume of new council houses. Here’s a look at how attitudes have changed to the buildings that still house one in six of us here in the UK.