<P> After Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in May 1979 , the legislation to implement the Right to Buy was passed in the Housing Act 1980 . Michael Heseltine , in his role as Secretary of State for the Environment , was in charge of implementing the legislation . Some 6,000,000 people were affected ; about one in three actually purchased their housing unit . Heseltine noted that `` no single piece of legislation has enabled the transfer of so much capital wealth from the state to the people '' . He said the right to buy had two main objectives : to give people what they wanted , and to reverse the trend of ever - increasing dominance of the state over the life of the individual . </P>
when did the right to buy scheme start
1980