First published in 1966 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd
This edition first published in 2021
by Routledge
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1966 J. B. Cullingworth
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ISBN: 978-0-367-64519-9 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-00-313856-3 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-67790-9 (Volume 2) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00-313291-2 (Volume 2) (ebk)
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FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1966
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publishers.
J. B. Cullingworth, 1966
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
in 10 on 11 point Times Roman type
BY SIMSON SHAND LTD
LONDON, HERTFORD AND HARLOW
The main object of this book is to provide an introduction to the work of local authorities in the field of housing. It differs from a straightforward legal text in several ways. First, it is by no means a comprehensive account of housing law: it attempts to provide only the main outlines. Secondly, it goes beyond a statement of the law to an account of some of the problems for which the law is designed to deal. Thirdly, it attempts to provide an outline of the administrative setting within which the law operates. At the same time the book differs from a polemic in that it is more concerned with a description of problems, policies and programmes, than with attempting to show how much better things would be if certain changes were introduced. But given the broad objectives of the book and the limitations of space (not to mention the paucity of research on the actual workings of local government) only a slender account can be given of the ways in which local authorities actually implement housing policy.
The aim has been to provide a readable account of housing policy and its administration by local authorities. It needs to be stressed, however, that housing policy is virtually indefinable. It may be taken to deal with the number of houses that are required, the allocation and price of land, the structure of the building industry and the development of industrialized building, the design and layout of houses, rents and subsidies, redevelopment and replanning of old areas, standards and family aspirations, and so forth. Architects, builders, treasurers, planners, sociologists, economists, politicians, landlords and tenants, all talk of housing policy, but all talk about rather different things or, at least, give a different emphasis to the many matters which can be included under the term. At the extreme one school of thought may regard the distributionand redistributionof income, or the supply of land, as the most important aspect of housing policy, while another school of thought may think almost entirely in terms of local authority house-building programmes, or rents, subsidies and interest rates. To cover, within the bounds of a modest book, all the matters which are relevant is impossible.
This is stated, not in order to forestall criticism, but to highlight the fact that what is included and what is excluded is partly determined by the writers own predilections and interests, and partly dictated by the writers view of who is likely to need a book of this sort. Apart from the intelligent layman (who, on the evidence of publishers blurbs, appears to have an extremely wide range of interests), this book is directed specifically at those who are looking for a reasonably short introduction to housing policy and administrationmainly students of social policy and local government. It forms a companion volume to the authors Town and Country Planning in England and Wales, published earlier in this series. Some topics which would otherwise have been included in the present book have been discussed in the earlier work. This applies particularly to the acquisition of land, compensation for compulsory acquisition and the expanded towns programme.
The first chapter, which is the longest, sketches the historical development of housing policy. Chapter II discusses the role and status of the central government vis--vis local authorities, and outlines the structure of local government. The third chapter deals with the administrative organization of local housing authorities and administrative aspects of housing management. This is followed by a description of the existing stock of council houses (with some comparisons with owner-occupied and privately-rented houses) and a short discussion of local authority house building. Chapter V provides a picture of the families who live in council houses and the methods adopted by local authorities in selecting tenants. Chapters VI to XI deal with particular aspects of housing policystandards, finance, slum clearance, the improvement of older houses, overcrowding and multiple occupation, and assistance to owner-occupiers and housing associations. In Chapter XII a few social aspects of housing are selected for discussionsocial balance, community facilities on new estates, unsatisfactory tenants and problem families, and the housing and welfare of old people. The final chapter is of a different character: it attempts to provoke thought on questions such as why the State is involved in housing policy, whether we need council housing at all, and whether housing policies are geared to meeting contemporary needs.
It is always difficult to make a book of this type up-to-date. The difficulties have, in this instance, been even greater than usual owing to the major changes in housing and other related policies being introduced by the present Labour Government. The final revision of the text was postponed until the publication of the White Paper on
