ABSTRACT
This chapter offers to a description of the existing stock of council houses and local authority building programmes. Local authorities normally carry out their housing responsibilities by building houses and letting them directly to tenants. In terms of housing output about 9 per cent of council houses are built by the direct labour organizations of local authorities. The means for controlling council building programmes is basically that local authorities are required to obtain ‘loan sanction’ for any loans which they wish to raise, though the importance of the level of interest rates should not be underestimated, particularly in relation to smaller authorities. The advantages of industrialized building methods can only be realized with continuous programmes of work. If discussion of industrialized building is heated, debates on direct labour tend to be at boiling point. Building by direct labour was restricted under the Conservative Government and local authorities were required to offer one in every three contracts for open competition.
