ABSTRACT
The expansion of local authority housing programmes under stimulation by the Conservative Government in the early ‘fifties greatly increased the cost of housing subsidies. A 50 per cent grant towards losses incurred on slum clearance was made available to local authorities and they were also given powers to make loans to private builders; to give guarantees to building societies in respect of advances to house purchasers; and to make loans to landlords wishing to undertake repairs and conversions. The Onslow Committee, reporting in 1923, believed that the unwillingness of private enterprise to take up its traditional role in supplying working-class housing was due to rent control. In short what was required was ‘a comprehensive plan of repair, maintenance, improvement and demolition which covers all types and conditions of house’. A reappraisal of housing policy was outlined in the 1961 White Paper, Housing in England and Wales.
