ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by probing behind the image of economic growth in Berkshire. It discusses how forms of housing provision are changing. The chapter shows that the dominant form of housing development in Berkshire tends to accentuate divisions already opening up in the labour market, and hence helps to increase social polarization within the county. Berkshire has a certain reputation as a genteel, rural county, uncontaminated by industry, but such a picture fails to convey its central position in the development of the new ‘mass production’ industries of the interwar years. The East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representing the interests of local manufacturers, supports further housebuilding and argues that there is a chronic shortage of rented accommodation. Analysis of the Berkshire case has also illuminated the relation between the housing market and labour market at a more conceptual level.
