ABSTRACT
Council housing has historically been the mainstay of social housing in Britain. Over 6 million dwellings were built by local authorities during the twentieth century (compared to just under a million by housing associations), and by the mid-1970s a third of households lived in council accommodation. Yet since then council housing has been in decline, in terms of the size of the stock, the amount of government subsidy spent on it and, as a consequence of the last two points, in terms of quality.
