The council is rolling back Thatcher’s policy by buying stock from private landlords. Other local authorities should take noteOn a windswept housing estate by the English Channel, Jacob Taylor surveys the latest addition to his property empire: a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, built on the playing fields of an old private school.They might not look like much but these neat rows of redbrick homes are an important acquisition – not for an offshore investor or a real-estate mogul, but for the Labour-run Brighton and Hove city council, where Taylor, its deputy leader, is taking a trailblazing approach. Continue reading...