ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the reasons for the dramatic growth of owner occupation during the second half of the twentieth century and explores some of the legal protections afforded to the many homeowners who finance the purchase and improvement of their properties by way of a mortgage. Two particularly important factors which contributed to the increase in owner occupation during the twentieth century were the rise in real incomes and the increased availability of mortgage finance. The greater weight placed on market-based solutions to individual housing needs coincided with widespread unemployment. Welfare support therefore assumed a particular significance in relation to less financially stable households. The 1960s and 1970s were decades of virtually full employment but the ability to raise finance by way of a mortgage depended on households having reasonably stable incomes which were sufficient to cover the required payments with only tax relief to assist them.
