One of the major planks of Margaret Thatcher’s deregulation initiatives, during the 80s, was to allow council house tenants to buy their own homes and become part of the ‘great British property-owning society’. A purchase then for circa £60,000, is today worth circa £6-700,000. One of the fortunate former tenants now has a nest egg, invariably free of debt, which when sold could buy a smaller property for themselves and release a handsome amount of cash that could provide a quasi-pension for their old age and possibly, in addition, give their offspring a ‘leg up’ by way of a deposit on their homes.