[2] The Act was passed to allow the building of new houses after the First World War,[3] and marked the start of a long 20th-century tradition of state-owned housing in planned council estates.

[4] The 1919 Act followed on from the Town Planning Act 1909 and the 1917 Tudor Walters Committee Report into the provision of housing in the United Kingdom; the latter commissioned by Parliament with a view to postwar construction.

In part, it was a response to the shocking lack of fitness amongst many recruits during World War I, which was attributed to poor living conditions.

It provided subsidies to local authorities and aimed to help finance the construction of 500,000 houses within three years.

Not all of the funding was ultimately made available, as the subsidies were scrapped in 1922 under the Geddes Axe austerity programme.