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During the twentieth century, owner-occupation developed from being a restricted way of holding residential property that catered largely for the housing needs of the upper echelons of society into the nation’s predominant tenure arrangement. This growth has been particularly prominent over the past 35 years. During the 1980s, following the Thatcher government’s introduction of the ‘right to buy’ (RTB) and other low cost home ownership (LCHO) initiatives, the proportion of households that owned their own homes rose from about a half to two-thirds. By 2002 the ownership proportion peaked at just under 70 per cent.