ABSTRACT
The principle of public intervention in the provision of housing did not go unopposed. The Victorian belief in the sanctity of the market and the operation of the filtering-up process to remove the worst housing was supported strongly by local ratepayers and by a powerful cartel of Glasgow landlords. Landlords, both individually as ratepayers and collectively through professional bodies such as house factors’ associations, advocated rentier strategies to town councils and vigorously opposed municipal involvement in house-building and house-letting. The relationship between landlord and tenant was an unequal one, with the power of the landlord enshrined in Scottish law to a far greater extent than in England. A central role in the administration of rented properties was played by the house factor, who acted as the agent of the property owner. House factors undertook a range of tasks on behalf of the owner. They had to find and select tenants, making arrangements for the letting or re-letting of property.
