Council house
[citation needed] An early use of the new powers was in Bath, where 36 new houses named Lampard's Buildings were built in 1900 on the compulsory purchased site of a row of rat infested cottages.
The 'Addison Act' brought in subsidies for council house building and aimed to provide 500,000 "homes fit for heroes" within a three-year period although less than half of this target was met.
[4] The housing built comprised three-bedroom dwellings with parlour and scullery: larger properties also include a living room.
The Wheatley Act (1924) passed by the new Labour Government introduced higher subsidies for council housing and also allowed for a contribution to be made from the rates.
[4] The Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 led to the building of prefab bungalows with a design life of ten years.
A number survive well into the 21st century, a testament to the durability of a series of housing designs and construction methods only envisaged to last 10 years.
The eventual bill, under the post-war Labour government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, agreed to deliver 300,000 units within 10 years, within a budget of £150m.
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".
[9] From the late 1970s, the wider takeover of free market economics propagated by Margaret Thatcher's conservative government sought to reduce the role of the state and the housing sector was further opened for private investors and actors.
The former tenants of the inner city properties were displaced far from their workplaces unable to afford the higher rents (though reduced from the 1919 levels) or the cost of transport.
[15] All prefab units approved by the Ministry of Works had to have a minimum floor space size of 635 square feet (59.0 m2), and the sections should be less than 7' 6" (2.3 m) wide.
The house retained a coal-fire, with a back boiler to create both central heating and a constant supply of hot water.
All prefabs under the housing act came pre-decorated in magnolia, with gloss-green on all additional wood, including the door trimmings and skirting boards.
[16] Among the Parker Morris standards were the requirements saying that: Particularly in larger cities, councils built high-rise blocks from the 1960s to the 1980s to accommodate a high density of dwellings at relatively low cost.
Notable schemes include Park Hill in Sheffield, Hulme Crescents in Manchester, Cottingley in Leeds, Churchill Gardens in London, and many examples in Glasgow.
[citation needed] In Skelmersdale, tenants are calling for their Radburn style housing to be remodelled so that defensible space is created with parking close to their homes and a reduction in general use areas which give rise to anti-social behaviour.
[22] "Sink estates" were criticized as "cut off from society's mainstream" with "self-inflicted poverty stemming from...the dead weight of low expectations.
"[22] In the immediate years of the post-war era, the role of the state in the sector existed as providers of public housing aimed at a broad range of households.
