Council houses for rent

Council houses are also known as local authority houses. This is a form of social housing and is a type of publicly owned property in the UK and Ireland. These houses are built with the purpose of providing working people with decent housing at a good rental rate. The houses were mainly looked after by the local councils of the town or city until recently. In the 60s, 70s and 80s newly built council housing tended to be tower blocks containing small flats. The trend since has been away from this type of construction towards semi detached and terraced houses.

Under the Thatcher government tenants of council housing were given the opportunity to purchase the house they lived in. This lead to a sharp decline in available council housing and increased rents for those who chose not to buy their houses. Increasingly social housing is in the hands of private housing associations and many of the tower blocks built in the 60s and 70s have been demolished to make way for houses and low-rise flats.