ABSTRACT
The spread of city populations into the surrounding countryside has become familiar since the early 1920s. Large concentrations of local authority housing built on the peripheries of towns and cities form a standard pattern throughout much of Britain. An astute purchase during 1943 and 1944 of 1671 acres of the Leigh Park estate by the city council from its general rate fund account ensured that land would be available for future development. In the 1960s, as private estates were developed rapidly in the Havant area, many skilled workers gave up their tenancies on Leigh Park to purchase their own homes nearby. Provision of housing on Leigh Park for specific categories of tenants has produced an imbalance in the numbers of the most vulnerable sections of society, namely children under the age of five years and adults aged over sixty years.
