ABSTRACT
IT has already been said that whereas most of the welfare services are the responsibility of the first-tier authorities, housing, save in the case of the County Boroughs and the County of London, is the responsibility of the second-tier authorities. Indeed, housing, until comparatively recently, has hardly been held to be a welfare service at all. The production of houses has been regarded as the function of the borough engineer, the collection of rents that of the borough treasurer. Housing managers with a training in the social implications of a housing programme and housing management, are something of an innovation, and there are still many housing authorities without one. Even when the housing and welfare authority is one and the same, there may be little communication between the departments concerned. An enquirer into the facts about the homeless at the Housing Department at London's County Hall was told this was nothing to do with housing—he should address his questions to the Welfare Department.
