The Inter-War Years

The developers/builders were encouraged to buy land outside the cities, as the Depression had further reduced already low agricultural land values. There was a surplus capacity in the building materials' industry and a good supply of labour. Trade union activities were diminishing within the labour market and the competition among the labour force was an additional factor that lowered building costs. At the same time a new style of builder/developer appeared who was willing to risk his and the banks' money to build small, cheaply constructed houses. The expectation and hope was that they could be sold at a low price to make it possible, with the help of improvements in the financing arrangements, for the lower paid to acquire them.

In the twenty years before 1939, 3,998,000 new homes were built, 1,112,000 by local authorities and 2,886,000 by private enterprise. A start had been made on clearing slums, in 1939 it was estimated that 245,000 slum houses had been demolished or closed and only 255,000 new houses or flats built as replacements<ref>'The Working-Class Owner-Occupied House Of The 1930s' Alan Crisp M.Litt, Oxford Thesis, 1998</ref>.

References

<references />