The Addison Act of 1919 allowed state funding of houses and gave local councils the powers to raise money by loans and act directly as developers building good standard houses for rent at a level which made it possible for the poorest people in the worst slum conditions to improve their lives. By 1921 230,000 homes had been built. However, it's important to realise that the Act was a product of a political situation, the belief that there was widespread dissatisfaction with the condition of the working classes and the possibility of social unrest.
By 1921 conditions had changed. First was the realisation that revolution was not imminent, people were to busy rebuilding their lives after the trauma of the Great War and the Spanish Flu pandemic. Then there was the reality of how bad Britain's economic situation was. It had been thought in 1918 that the country could revert to the pre-war status quo but it became obvious that this would not be possible and expenditure had to be cut. That's right, what was needed was 'Austerity'.
The first casualty of this was Addison's Act. In 1923 the Chamberlain Act withdrew funding for Council Housing and concentrated on housing for sale and private building. Councils could still build new houses but had to sell existing stock. The effect of this was to reduce Council Housing and as the inter war depression grew in strength less effort was put into housing. It wasn't until the 1930 Housing Act which stimulated slum clearance that conditions started to improve but in 1939 the war stopped all construction and bombing damage further reduced the housing stock.
In 1942 the Burt Committee formed by the war time coalition government proposed that in order to address the shortfall of 200,000 homes, 500,000 prefabricated houses with a life of ten years should be built within five years of the end of the war. The post war Labour government decided on a target of 300,000 prefabs but in the end, after 1.2 million homes had been built by 1951, only 156,623 were built. The most surprising thing about this temporary housing was how long the prefabs lasted, some which were upgraded are still in use today.
In our area the post war initiative provided us with the Coates Estate and 'The Ranch' at Earby. The ideas behind state provision of housing were modified by the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 and the new council estates were no longer dedicated to rehousing the poor but should fulfil the needs of a wider range of society. At grass roots level council housing was very effective giving good accommodation at reasonable rents with security of tenure to many people. The concept of 'Social Housing' had arrived, housing of a standard that would economically benefit society and raise both living standards and quality of life for the tenants. My mother and father benefited when they went to live at 13 Avon Drive on the Coates estate.
The view from 13 Avon Drive in 1979, one of the best in Barlick!
