ABSTRACT
When Howard wrote there were thousands of friendly societies organized on the principle of voluntary mutual aid among the working poor; they flourished until in 1948 the National Health Service made them redundant. There were also building societies organized on the mutual principle, which in the 1890s were evolving from ‘temporary’ into ‘permanent’ societies. They would prove the main agent propelling the huge shift from renting to home ownership during the twentieth century —at the end of which, ironically, most de-mutualized. But there was an earlier irony: by their success, they massively aided the suburbanization of the population, the negation of what Howard and his followers were campaigning for.
