ABSTRACT
The grim circumstances of 1945 were exacerbated by the backlog of slum clearance abandoned in 1939. As the armed forces and the war-related industries expanded, they bid labour away from the housebuilding industry. The willingness of the state to impose severe cuts in the scale of housing construction in times of war or economic crisis derives from the fact that the annual output of new dwellings is only 1 or 2 per cent of the total stock. The huge disparity between supply and demand, between the existing scale of building materials and construction output in industries stripped of their resources by the war and the demand for building work of every conceivable kind, made a clear determination of priorities necessary. Moreover the extensive damage and destruction caused by enemy air attacks on our cities in 1940-5 clearly required government intervention in the land market if city centre redevelopment was to proceed efficiently in the postwar years.
