ABSTRACT
Once in power the Labour Cabinet did pursue a policy of extensive nationalisation, including the Bank of England, coal, gas, electricity, the railways, part of inland transport, cable and wireless and, half-heartedly, steel. At the very beginning of the period in question the simple and sensible decision was taken that local authority house building in the early post-war years was to exclude slum clearance and redevelopment. This was just as it had been after the First World War. The fear of post-war inflation was particularly sharp because of the labour and materials shortages from which the economy suffered at the war’s end. During the period 1939 1945 not only the construction industry but also the building materials and household equipment industries had been stripped of their labour assets in preference to those sectors with a higher war priority. As far as capital finance goes, the immediate post-war situation was very satisfactory, viewed in historical retrospect.
