Heyday
During the Second World War almost four million British homes were destroyed or damaged, and afterwards there was a major boom in council house construction. The bomb damage of the Second World War only worsened the condition of Britain's housing stock, which was in poor condition before the outbreak of war. Before the war many social housing projects, such as the Quarry Hill Flats (pictured) were built. However the bomb damage meant that much greater progress had to be made with slum clearance projects. In cities like London, Coventry and Kingston upon Hull, which received particularly heavy bombing, the redevelopment schemes were often larger and more radical.
In the immediate post-war years, and well into the 1950s, council house provision was shaped by the New Towns Act 1946 and the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 of the 1945–51 Labour government. At the same time this government introduced housing legislation that removed explicit references to housing for the working class and introduced the concept of 'general needs' construction (i.e., that council housing should aim to fill needs for a wide range of society). In particular, Aneurin Bevan, the Minister for Health and Housing, promoted a vision of new estates where "the working man, the doctor and the clergyman will live in close proximity to each other".
While a number of large cities tentatively erected their first high rise developments (e.g., Aston Cross in Birmingham, Churchill Gardens in Westminster), in England and Wales homes were typically semi-detached or in small terraces. A three-bedroom semi-detached council house was typically built on a square grid 7 yards (21 feet (6.4 m)) on the side, with a maximum density of no more than 12 houses per acre (30 houses per hectare; around 337 m² per house), meaning that most houses had generous space around them. The new towns and many existing towns had countless estates built to this basic model. In Scotland, the tradition of tenement living meant that most homes of this period were built in low rise (3–4) storey blocks of flats.
For many working class people, this housing model provided their first experience of private indoor toilets, private bathrooms and hot running water. For tenants in England and Wales it also usually provided the first experience of private garden space (usually front and rear). The quality of these houses, and in particular the existence of small gardens in England and Wales, compared very favourably with social housing being built on the European continent in this period.
Towards the end of the 1950s the Conservative government began to re-direct the building programme back from 'general needs' towards inner city slum clearance. At the same time the rising influence of modernist architecture, the development of new construction techniques, such as system building (a form of prefabrication), and a growing desire by many towns and cities to retain population (and thus prestige) within their own boundaries (rather than "export" people to New Towns and "out of boundary" peripheral estates) led to this model being abandoned in Britain's inner city areas. Instead, tower blocks became the preferred model. The argument was advanced that more generously sized dwellings could be provided this way, that communities could be re-housed close to existing employment opportunities and there would be far less disruption to local shopping and leisure patterns. During the Fifties and Sixties, the number of high-rise dwellings rose significantly. In 1953, just 23% of public sector approvals were for flats, with only 3% high-rise (defined as blocks of six stories or more). By 1966, however, high-rise housing accounted for 26% of all homes started.
Subsequent research at the LSE has tried to cast doubt on claims that only high rise developments could accommodate the density level of population required for these policies.
The use of system building methods was later seen as possibly being a short-sighted, false economy, as many of the later houses are in a poor state of repair or have been demolished. On many estates, older council houses, with their largely superior build quality, have outlived them.
However, central government (under both the Conservative and Labour parties) considered the provision of as much new housing as possible to be a major part of post-war policy, and provided subsidies for local authorities to build such housing. A number of types of system building proved to have serious flaws, and some flats - which were initially very popular with tenants due to their generous space standards, and with councillors and housing officials due to their speed of construction - have suffered problems, especially poor protection from damp and weather ingress, as well as other design defects and poor management.
On 16 May 1968, the problems associated with tower blocks were brought into sharp focus after the partial collapse of Ronan Point, a system-built tower block in Newham, east London, as a consequence of a gas explosion. A similar incident caused significant damage to one side of a block in Manchester.
Although these incidents were due to a series of failures (not least being the illegal connection of gas cookers by unqualified friends of tenants), subsequently all system-built tower blocks were usually built with 'all electric' heating, to prevent the occurrence of such an explosion.
While some tower blocks have been demolished, many that occupy convenient city centre sites (such as The Sentinels in Birmingham, Trellick Tower and Great Arthur House on the Golden Lane Estate in London) remain extremely popular with residents and have even been subject to an element of gentrification, caused by the onward sale of leases purchased by original tenants under the Right to buy scheme to more affluent purchasers.
Broadwater Farm in Haringey, north London. One of the most ambitious post-war council housing developments, the complex of estates became a national symbol of perceived failures in the council housing system following the Broadwater Farm riot in 1985. Since 1985, Broadwater Farm has been the focus of an intense regeneration program, although the area still experiences a high crime rate.
Read more about this topic: Council House