ABSTRACT
The administrative controls so far outlined are all concerned with preventing local authorities from carrying out proposals which they wish to undertake or from carrying them out in a particular way. Many of the actions of local authorities require approval by a central government department: for housing and town planning the department concerned is the Ministry of Housing and Local Government. Some of these controls are quasi-judicial: the Minister’s role is to ensure that, within the framework of central government policy, a just and reasonable balance is being struck between the different interests concerned. It is not only in the provision of houses that local authority housing functions are undergoing the stresses of change. Local housing authorities in England and Wales are distinguished by their multiplicity and their vast differences in size. Outside London all county boroughs and the three types of county districts—municipal boroughs, urban districts and rural districts—are housing authorities.
