New Labour would like to portray 1997 as a new beginning for public policy, but Peter King argues that we now have, in housing and in other areas of public policy, a consensus based on Thatcherite reforms. He explores the particularly conservative understanding of housing that transformed public attitudes in the 1980s and 1990s, and the impact it still has on policy. This book is written with non-housing specialists in mind, and will be of interest to students of housing, urban studies, public policy and politics, at both undergraduate and higher levels.