The council house is a form of public housing found in the United Kingdom. Council houses were built and operated by local councils for the benefit of the local population. As of 2005, approximately 20 per cent of the country's housing stock is owned by local councils or by housing associations. Public housing or social housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. ... A municipality or general-purpose district (compare with: special-purpose district) is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government. ... Housing associations in the United Kingdom are independent not-for-profit bodies that provide low cost housing. ...

Council housing was generally typified by houses with generously sized rooms (compared to the bottom end of the private sector), particularly those built in the 1970s after the Parker Morris standards were introduced. However they also tended to be unimaginatively designed, and rigid council rules often forbade tenants "personalising" their houses. Council tenants also faced problems of mobility, finding it hard to move from one property to another as their families grew or shrank, or to seek work. Despite the building there was a constant demand for housing, and 'waiting lists' were maintained with preference being given to those in most housing need. The Parker Morris Committee drew up the influential 1961 report on public housing in the United Kingdom entitled Homes for today and tomorrow. ...

Origins

The pressure for decent housing arose from overcrowding in the large cities in the 19th century, and many social commentators (such as Octavia Hill) reported on the squalor, sickness and perceived immorality that arose. Some philanthropists had begun to provide housing in tenement blocks, while some factory owners built entire villages for their workers such as Saltaire (1853), Bournville (1879), Port Sunlight, and Silver End as late as 1925. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Octavia Hill (Wisbech, 1838 - 1912) was an English social reformer, particularly concerned with the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, specifically London, in the second half of the 19th century. ... A philanthropist is someone who devotes his or her time, money, or effort towards helping others. ... An <<a href=b class=external free title=b>b>apartment building</<a href=b class=external free title=b>b>, <<a href=b class=external free title=b>b>block of flats</<a href=b class=external free title=b>b> or <<a href=b class=external free title... Saltaire mills from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Saltaire is the name of a town in the metropolitan borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. ... Bournville is an area on the south side of Birmingham England, best known for its connections with the Cadbury family and chocolate - including a dark chocolate bar branded Bournville. History Originally consisting of a scattering of farmsteads and cottages linked by winding country lanes, the only visual highlight being the... Port Sunlight is a village on the Wirral (in the North West of England). ... 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

It was not until 1885, when a Royal Commission was held, that the state took an interest. This led to the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890. This Act encouraged local authorities to improve the housing in their areas. As consequence many local councils began building flats and houses in the early 20th century. The First World War indirectly provided a new impetus, when the poor physical health and condition of many urban recruits to the army was noted with shock and alarm. This led to a campaign known as Homes fit for heroes and in 1919 the Government first required councils to provide housing, helping them to do so through the provision of subsidies, under the Housing Act 1919. Many houses were built in cottage estates as in Downham Estate as well as in blocks of flats. 1885 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... In countries that are members of the Commonwealth a Royal Commission is a major government inquiry into an issue. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British military. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Downham Estate is an example of the programme of building Council housing that occurred in Britain between the First and Second World Wars. ...

While new council housing had been built, little had been done to resolve the problem of inner city slums. This was to change with the Housing Act 1930, which required councils to prepare slum clearance plans, and some progress was made before World War II intervened. A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air, August 9, 1945 after the Allied atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ...

Apogee

Following the Second World War there was a major boom in council house construction, since nearly one in three houses had been destroyed or damaged during its course. As well as this, slum clearance programmes were promoted. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air, August 9, 1945 after the Allied atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ...

In the immediate post-War years and well into the 1950s council house provision was shaped by the New Towns Act 1946 and the Town and Country Planning Act 1947. Houses were typically semi-detached or in small terraces. A three-bedroom semi-detached council house was typically built on a 7 by 7 yd (6.4 by 6.4 m) grid and at a density of no more than 12 houses per acre (337 m² per house), meaning that most houses had generous space around them. The new towns and many existing towns had countless estates built to this basic model. Semi-detached housing (usually abbreviated to semi, as in three-bedroom semi) consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each houses layout is a mirror image of its twin. ... A street of British terraced housing In architecture and city planning, a terrace, rowhouse, or townhouse (United States) is a style of housing since the late 18th century where identical individual houses are cojoined into rows. ... A New town or planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was designed from scratch, and grew up more or less following the plan. ...

For many working class people, this housing model provided the first experience of private garden space (usually front and rear) and the first private and indoor toilets and bathrooms. The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Part of a garden in Bristol, England A flower bed in the gardens of Bristol Zoo, England. ... Flush toilet A toilet is a plumbing fixture primarily intended for the disposal of bodily wastes. ... A typical American bathroom A bathroom is a room that may have different functions depending on the cultural context it is used in. ...

Towards the end of the 1950s the influence of modernist architecture and the development of new construction techniques such as system building (a form of prefabrication) led to this model being abandoned in Britain's inner city areas. Instead Tower blocks became the preferred model. The argument was that more dwellings could be provided this way (a claim that research at the LSE has cast serious doubt on). Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the... Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye, 1929-30: The modern style is noted for its rigorous geometrical forms. ... Prefabrication is the practice of manufacturing the parts of an assembly in one location, ready for them to be assembled in another place. ... The term inner-city is often applied to the poorer parts at the centre of a major city. ... A tower block, block of flats or apartment block is a high-rise apartment building. ... The London School of Economics and Political Science, often called the London School of Economics or the LSE, is one of the worlds major specialist universities in economics and social sciences. ...

Central government (under both Labour and Conservative administrations) saw the provision of housing as a major part of its policy, and provided subsidies for local authorities to build such housing. System building proved to have serious flaws and flats - which were initially very popular due to their generous space standards - suffered many problems, especially poor protection from damp, weather ingress, but also more serious design defects.

The problem associated with of tower blocks were brought into sharp focus after the partial collapse of Ronan Point, a tower block in Newham, east London on 16 May 1968. Ronan Point was a 23-storey tower block in Newham, east London. ... The London Borough of Newham is a London borough in East London. ... St. ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (137th in leap years). ...

Despite this, by the end of the 1970s around 49% of the population lived in council housing.

Decline

Council housing declined sharply in the Thatcher era, as the Conservative government encouraged aspiration toward home ownership. The Right Honourable Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925), born Margaret Hilda Roberts, is a British stateswoman and was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the only woman as of 2005 to serve in that position, and the... The Conservative Party is the largest political party on the centre-right in the United Kingdom. ...

Rules restricted councils' investment in housing, preventing them subsidising it from local taxes, but more important, council tenants were given the "right-to-buy" their council houses on very attractive financial terms. Depending on how long they had lived there, tenants could buy their home with a discount of up to 60% of the market price for houses and 70% for flats. Councils were prevented from reinvesting the proceeds of these sales in new housing, and the total available stock, particularly of more desirable homes, declined.

The "right-to-buy" was popular with many former Labour voters and, although the Labour government of Tony Blair has tighened the rules (reducing the maximum discount in areas of most housing need), it shows no sign of abandoning right-to-buy. Labour did relax the policy forbidding reinvestment of sales proceeds. The Labour Party is a centre-left or social democratic political party in Britain (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ... The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ...

Many councils have now transferred their housing stock to not-for-profit housing associations, who are now also the providers of most new public sector housing. Housing associations in the United Kingdom are independent not-for-profit bodies that provide low cost housing. ...

The current position is that council housing is a more and more marginalised and stigmatised sector, with the term 'council' increasingly used as a pejorative. Whereas in its early years, council housing was an acceptable option for much of the population, it is now increasingly an option only for those reliant on social security. For specific national programs, see Social Security (United States), National insurance (UK), Social Security (Sweden) Social security mainly refers to a field of social welfare concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized needs, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment, families with children and others. ...

In some parts of the country, especially the northern Britain, much council housing is virtually unlettable. Council housing stock has sometimes been used to house those seeking refugee status ('asylum seekers'), who have no choice in their accommodation. In the south and in London in particular, demand still massively outstrips supply. St. ...

The Wakefield district council found itself unable to maintain its supply of council housing and sold it all to a housing association, in 2004; this represented the second largest stock transfer in British history. Housing rented from the council accounted for about 28% of the district and around 40% of the actual city of Wakefield. For other uses of the word, see Wakefield (disambiguation). ... For other uses of the word, see Wakefield (disambiguation). ...

Other than Wakefield, districts that maintain large amounts of council housing include Barnsley, Corby, Easington, Hull, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield and most of the boroughs in east and south London. Many districts of the country have less than 10% of housing rented from the coucil; the national average stands at 14%. For other uses of the word, see Wakefield (disambiguation). ... Map sources for Barnsley at grid reference SE3406 Barnsley is a large town in South Yorkshire, England, lying on the River Dearne, approximately twenty kilometres north of Sheffield. ... Corby is an industrial town and a local government district located 8 miles north of Kettering in Northamptonshire, England. ... Easington is the name of several places in England: Easington, Buckinghamshire Easington, County Durham Easington (district), County Durham Easington, Oxfordshire Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire Easington, North Riding of Yorkshire Easington, West Riding of Yorkshire Easington Colliery, County Durham Easington Lane, County Durham This is a disambiguation page — a navigational... Hull or Kingston upon Hull is a British city situated on the north bank of the Humber estuary. ... Manchester is a city in the north-west of England. ... Nottingham is a city located in Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands of England. ... Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough in the north of England. ... St. ...

See also

• New towns
• Prefabrication
• Privatisation
• UK topics

A New town or planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was designed from scratch, and grew up more or less following the plan. ... Prefabrication is the practice of manufacturing the parts of an assembly in one location, ready for them to be assembled in another place. ... Privatization (sometimes privatisation, denationalization, or, especially in India, disinvestment) is the process of transferring property, from public ownership to private ownership and/or transferring the management of a service or activity from the government to the private sector. ... Shortcut: UK topics This is a list of topics related to the United Kingdom. ...

External link

• BBC NEWS: 'Council home for sale at £895,000'