ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the role of elected members in initiating building operations and in controlling the efficiency of their execution. Much of the internal structure of local authorities is determined by the committee system, and the pattern of their organizations is largely fixed by the distribution of powers and responsibilities between committees. In the non-county boroughs and districts housing was almost the only building activity and the district authorities covered by the inquiry reported hardly any other single building of any size up to the end of 1957. The concentration of effort on one or two dominant kinds of building activity influences the kind of building organization each type of authority creates. In the smaller county boroughs many of these services are on too modest a scale to justify a separate committee for each, and the more important committees will absorb the less important. Service committees are normally responsible for drawing up their own priorities.
