The right of council tenants to buy their home has come to an end in Scotland.

The Right to Buy was brought in across Britain in 1980 by the Thatcher government. It proved to be one of the most transformative pieces of public policy ever enacted by a British government.

Its ramifications continue to be felt.

Supporters of the policy herald it as the greatest transfer of wealth from the state to individual citizens in the country's history. Its detractors, however, point to it as a get rich quick scheme which has in turn impoverished a generation struggling to find affordable social housing with the stock depleted from the sale of 1.5m properties.

The policy came to symbolise Thatcherism: The rise of the private individual above the collective.

In her first speech as party leader in 1975, the Iron Lady put property ownership at the heart her plan for the country.

"Let me give you my vision," she said. "A man's right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the State as servant and not as master".

Not all shared that vision. The policy's implementation was deeply opposed by the Parliamentary Labour Party and its councils.

Council housing was a fundamental tenet of British post-war socialism, a very different vision of Britain to Mrs Thatcher's dream.

The properties built by the state were, first, to give the industrial working class decent standards of housing and, second, create mixed communities where bosses and workers lived together. Mainstream socialism in Britain aimed to create a collective of the middle managers and workers who lived and worked together for the common good.

It is important to note though this idea of a democracy built on property ownership was not exported to Scotland in the 1980s. Like a lot of the foundation stones of Western free market capitalism which has flourished in the City and Wall Street it has its ideological origins in Scotland.

Noel Skelton, a Scottish Unionist, was the first to coin the term 'property owning democracy'.

In the wake of the Bolshevik revolution he championed the rights of property ownership and its virtues. It would be a means of providing citizens with a stake in a stable social order.

Some 57 years later it would be Skelton's homeland which would be the greatest enthusiasts of the policy in the United Kingdom.

Since Scottish council house tenants gained the right to buy their property through the Tenants' Rights, Etc. (Scotland) Act 1980 around 445,000 properties have been bought by their occupants.

This means that a country which makes up just 8% of the UK's total population has contributed to 18% of total council house sales - more than double its population share.

A country which rejected Thatcher at the ballot box seems to have embraced Thatcherism in the home. It is one of the most fascinating political paradoxes in recent history.

The First Minister states that growing up under Thatcherism was her inspiration to get involved in politics.

"Thatcher was the motivation for my entire political career," Sturgeon said. "I hated everything she stood for. This was the genesis of my nationalism.

"I hated the fact that she was able to do what she was doing and yet no one I knew in my entire life had voted for her".

Yet, Sturgeon was brought up in a council house bought under a scheme devised by this same person. Like hundreds of thousands of Scots she benefited from this deeply Thatcherite policy but has no admiration for her.

The impact of the nearly half a million sales has been significant and transformative.

In 1981, less than 40% of properties were occupied by their owner. It is now 58%. Skelton's vision of a society where property ownership was commonplace has become reality.

Modern opponents of the Right to Buy say its real legacy is not of an abstract notion of a property owning democracy and self-betterment but to the creation of a social housing shortage.

While tenants kept their end of the bargain through buying the properties, the state has failed to replace the housing stock to a sufficient level.

In the same year that 58% of Scottish properties were owner occupied, 155,000 Scots were on the waiting list for council or housing association accommodation. Yet in 2014 only 16,747 properties were built by a combination of housing associations and local councils.

Demand is not being met.

The Scottish Government has therefore come to the conclusion that the fastest way to stop the waiting list growing is to stop the further depletion of council housing stock.

Over time it hopes with sales stopped the stock will rise to help ease demand.

Through a combination of social and private housing the government aims to have 50,000 new affordable homes built between 2016 and 2021 through £3bn of investment.

To encourage private home builders to target the lower end of the market the Scottish Government is offering interest free equity loans which provide up to 15% of the property's price, leaving buyers to contribute a 5% mortgage deposit - around half of the normal rate.

Home ownership will remain an aspiration for many Scots after the Right to Buy's death. As will be the dream of 155,000 (and counting) people of a securing tenancy in a council house.

Making these aspirations a reality is one of the most daunting tasks for public policy makers today.

The Housing Scotland Act is now in effect, but the debate about housing resources and provision is likely to continue.