Yeah yeah mate, Thatcher was the issue not you.

Did he really blame Thatcher? Nottingham’s housing crisis is a local failure of people like David Mellen not Margaret Thatcher.

Every now and then, quite often with Labour, someone in local politics tries to rewrite history – but worse than that, they are arrogant enough to think you are stupid enough to believe them.

The latest example? A former Nottingham council leader blaming Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy policy from the 1980s for the city’s current housing crisis.

Let’s be honest: that’s not just misleading. It’s absurd.

Thatcher isn’t running Nottingham. Labour is and has been for ages.

Nottingham City Council has been under Labour control for more than three decades. They’ve held the reins since 1991. During which time they’ve had 14 years in national power, too. So why are they still pointing the finger at a Conservative Prime Minister from a generation ago? Because it is never Labour’s fault. It is Labour’s only political move they know: distract people by blaming the past instead of owning your own failings. In fairness, Labour used to think History began at the 2010 Coalition Government, so it is nice to see them making references to a time before then.

Right to Buy didn’t make homes disappear. Here’s the thing about the Right to Buy scheme: it didn’t destroy homes. It transferred ownership. Those houses are still out there. People are still living in them — whether they’re privately owned, rented out, or still in social housing. The real problem isn’t who owns (although I think you should own them) the houses. It’s how many homes exist in the first place.

So, when politicians say the problem is that people bought their council homes decades ago, they’re missing the point entirely. What matters now is how much housing stock we’ve added. The real question is what have Nottingham Labour done to add enough stock in Nottingham? Nottingham hasn’t added enough. Labour locally and national did effectively nothing to add more stock.

There’s also something ideological happening here that’s worth unpacking.

Right to Buy wasn’t just a housing policy, it was a shift in mindset. It allowed, often, working-class families to own something, often for the first time. It gave people security, pride, and a stake in their future. Hope.

Labour has always had a tricky relationship with that idea. There's an underlying discomfort in parts of the party with people owning something outright. Labour want you dependent on them, the state. I’m not sure why. I think it is so they can feel good about themselves.

I want you to own something that is yours. To shape your life, not the life Labour allow you to have.

That’s why, to this day, some Labour voices seem more comfortable with people being tenants of the state than owners of their home. It’s as if they’d rather you stay dependent on the system than gain the independence that comes with ownership.

But here’s the truth: owning your home is one of the few ways ordinary people can build real, lasting financial stability. And it’s not wrong to want that. It’s not greedy, it’s not selfish. People just want a chance. A chance to be them. A chance to thrive. And more people should have that opportunity, not fewer. Labour don’t think you should have that chance.

The council hasn’t built enough homes. That’s the real crisis. These politicians should own it. It was on there watch. Let’s stop pretending the housing shortage was inevitable. Nottingham City Council could have done far more to increase the number of homes built over the last 30 years — through direct council builds, partnerships with developers, or simply by approving more planning applications. Instead, what we’ve seen is years of underbuilding, a sluggish planning system, and little urgency from the council to solve the supply problem. Even now, Nottingham is far behind where it needs to be.

Labour may be promising to build 1.5 million homes nationally under Keir Starmer, but if local councils like Nottingham don’t deliver, those promises mean nothing.

It’s impossible to talk about the city’s finances without mentioning the massive black hole left by Robin Hood Energy — the council-owned energy company that went bust and cost local taxpayers an eye-watering £38 million.

Just think: how many houses could have been built with that money?

If you take a conservative estimate of £175,000 to build a new home, that’s over 200 homes the council could have delivered. Homes that would be occupied right now by local people. Instead, that money went up in smoke.

So, when councillors say they didn’t have the funds to build new homes, maybe they should look at their own track record of risky ventures and failed projects before blaming a 1980s Conservative policy.

Housing is a local issue as much as it is a national one. Councils are responsible for:

• Setting planning policy

• Approving new developments

• Working with housing associations and developers

• Maintaining and investing in their existing housing stock

If Nottingham has a housing problem — and it absolutely does — that’s on the people running Nottingham, not some ghost of Thatcher past.

We need to move away from lazy political blame games and start talking about real solutions. Here’s what that should look like:

1. Build more homes — whether through council building, partnerships, or unlocking land for private development.

2. Prioritise supply over ideology — whether a house is social, private, or shared ownership is less important than making sure firstly that it exists – and then do all you can to make sure people own their own home.

3. Fix council finances — stop pouring money into vanity projects and start investing in housing and services that matter – stop talking – start doing.

4. Get people like David Mellen as far away from our politics as possible – stop voting for fools