The Future of Council Housing

John English

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000297744
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Urban Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Originally published in 1982, at a time when the UK government was pursuing the policy of council house sales, this book explores the implications of selling council houses, criticises the housing management and policies of the 1970s and 80s and argues forcefully for the retention of the council housing sector.

1 The First Sixty Years of Council Housing

David Whitham

The building of council housing on a substantial scale in Britain began with the introduction of exchequer subsidies at the end of the First World War, though its origins go back to the nineteenth century. An understanding of the 60 years of the history of public sector housing, and of the events which led up to the subsidy legislation of 1919, is important because changing policies and attitudes have profoundly affected the quality and character of the stock which exists today. Discussion of the present and future roles of council housing must take account of this inheritance. The development of housing policy in Britain has been covered several times before and in far greater detail than is possible here,¹ but this chapter attempts to outline the evolving role, size and form of the public sector. Statistics have generally been avoided, though tables are included showing numbers of dwellings built and, for more recent years, the breakdown between houses and flats.

Towards Council Housing

British housing at the end of the First World War presented a crisis both of quantity and quality. Advancing byelaw standards and the products of the housing reform movement in the private, co-operative and public sectors, though far from numerous, had shown that high standards were achievable for working-class housing. Those standards had become expectations but they were at the margin of affordability, victim to increasing costs, dearer money, higher rates and new taxation. These threats apart, other outlets for investment had diverted savings from private house building which had come to a virtual standstill about 1908.

Wartime experience had shown that both supply and quality of available housing impeded mobility of labour. To ease these obstacles the Admiralty and the War Office together with the Ministry of Munitions had supplied, directly or indirectly, more than 7,000 houses between 1914 and 1918 in England and Wales, and 4,000 in Scotland. ² Social initiatives by the Ministry of Munitions had been numerous, but nothing was done that was not seen to be necessary to fighting the war. The crisis of quality had already bitten hard in 1911, when Admiralty torpedo workers transferred from Woolwich rejected the tenement ‘houses’ offered to them in Greenock.³ The decision to house government workers involved in such moves at ‘garden-city’ standards, in generously planned cottages at twelve to the acre, had been made before the war began and it was accepted that such provision would have to be subsidised. In August 1914 a new housing act was rushed on to the statute book and under it was built the first state-subsidised housing, at Rosyth in Scotland and the Well Hall estate near Woolwich Arsenal.

The war experience showed, not surprisingly, that housing conditions were worst in the older industrial areas dominated by heavy industry, and, as the torpedo workers had realised, they were nowhere worse than in Scotland. In Scotland, too, the crisis of supply broke most dramatically in the Glasgow rent strikes of 1915,⁴ leading directly to rent control, a ‘temporary’ measure that was not easily to be relinquished.

As early as 1911 concern about Scottish housing had caused the appointment of a royal commission which eventually reported in 1917.⁵ The commission had shown great interest in the provision of houses by local authorities and took evidence from authorities in England, notably Liverpool and the London County Council (LCC), which had special experience of council housing. In accordance with the terms of their appointment, the commissioners studiously ignored the effects of rent control, but could not ignore the pressures of the war. But even discounting these special circumstances, the majority report found the failure of the private supply of working-class housing proven.

Doubtless the climax came with the war; the failure however had become manifest long before then. But whatever its causes, the disorganisation flowing from the war makes an immediate revival of uncontrolled private enterprise on an adequate scale impossible.

There is, in our view, only one alternative: the State itself, through the local authorities, is alone in a position to assume responsibility... the local authorities must be placed under an unmistakable obligation to maintain a continuous and systematic survey of their housing accommodation [and] - failing provision by any other agencies - to undertake themselves - with financial assistance from the State - the necessary building schemes.⁶

A minority of the commissioners dissented: while not denying the need for some state provision, they would have limited it to a clearly residual role. They doubted the capacity of local authorities to do the job, they feared the effects of subsidised housing on the market as a whole and, not least, were concerned about ‘the voting power of the municipal tenant’.⁷

Needs, Standards and Subsidy

The controversy that had accompanied its production, and the forceful arguments employed, if anything increased the persuasive power of the Scottish royal commission’s report. Earlier in 1917 the Local Government Board had sent a circular letter to local authorities asking for estimates of housing need, and had appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Sir John Tudor Walters to consider practical ques...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 The First Sixty Years of Council Housing David Whitham
• 2 A New Era for Council Housing? Alan Murie
• 3 The Financial and Economic Implications of Council House Sales Bernard Kilroy
• 4 The Social Implications of Council House Sales Ray Forrest
• 5 The Demand for Home Ownership Colin Jones
• 6 Ideology and Housing Management Pam Gallagher
• 7 Private Housing at All Costs: Some Lessons from America Valerie Karn
• 8 The Choice for Council Housing John English
• Appendix: Report of the House of Commons Environment Committee on Council House Sales
• Notes on Contributors
• Index