Million Programme

[a][1] As part of its intention to modernize Swedish housing, it also demolished many older buildings that national and local governments considered obsolescent, unhealthy or derelict.

After the war, as Swedish industry was unharmed, cities needed workers to produce the amount of goods demanded by the rest of war-destroyed Europe.

The increasing standard of living led to demands to dramatically decrease the population density and to abolish the old Lort-Sverige (Dirt Sweden).

For the houses designed for the lowest-income group, the government would bear 66% of the initial costs and this would be repaid by the customers and residents in a 30-year period.

[citation needed] For other categories such as students, blue collar workers, and immigrants, the government provided subsidies and incentives to building companies in order to start construction.

[citation needed] The new Million Programme residential areas were greatly inspired by early suburban neighbourhoods such as Vällingby and Årsta.

The means of achieving this were to build at high quality with a good range of services including schools, nurseries, churches, public spaces, libraries, and meeting places for different groups of households.