'Homes For Heroes': Difference between revisions
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After the end of the First World War soldiers were returning with demands for a better country and especially for better housing. The soldiers were in no mood to compromise. A Soviet was set up in Glasgow. The country was in revolt about the slaughter and privations of the First World War. Russia had created a revolution which was encouraging people in parts of Europe to follow suit. | After the end of the First World War soldiers were returning with demands for a better country and especially for better housing. The soldiers were in no mood to compromise. A Soviet was set up in Glasgow. The country was in revolt about the slaughter and privations of the First World War. Russia had created a revolution which was encouraging people in parts of Europe to follow suit. | ||
At the outbreak of the War the upper classes, which had been well fed and housed all their lives, were graded A1 in the Army. Enormous numbers of others, badly fed and abominably housed, had to be graded C3. This contrast had shocked the country. | At the outbreak of the War the upper classes, which had been well fed and housed all their lives, were graded A1 in the Army. Enormous numbers of others, badly fed and abominably housed, had to be graded C3. This contrast had shocked the country. | ||
In 1918, Lloyd George, who could sense the political mood on the wing, coined the phrase 'Homes For Heroes'. It was immensely popular and Lloyd George's rhetoric became government policy as he promised a dramatic funding of municipal housing. The Treasury gave an open-ended authority for money to be spent on housing. The appearance of small groups of new houses in different parts of the country was seen as a token of the changes to come. | |||
Even though the period between 1919 and 1939 is known to be a time of heavy unemployment it was also a time of economic growth. In 1919 and 1920 there was a short boom which collapsed by the end of 1920. By 1921, the country was in the post-war slump. The cut-backs which were to lead to the 1926 General Strike, were being put into place. The hard-faced men were in charge again, and the open-ended housing subsidy was withdrawn. However,by the mid 1920s growth was resumed and continued steadily until 1929. the 1923 and especially the 1924 Housing Act, under the first Labour government, did continue the momentum for Local Authorities to provide houses for low-income families. | |||
The decline in old industries and the building of new factories was coupled with a movement from the older industrial areas in the north to the London suburbs. This created a need for housing. The homes for heroes mood of 1920 had all but disappeared by the start of the 1930s. The massive landslide in 1931 for the National Government marked the end of the power of the Labour party in Parliament, for a while, and Britain became almost a one party state for the rest of the decade. In 1931 the funding difficulties of the Treasury and the few Labour party members in Parliament combined to lessen what pressure there was on the government to implement the dramatic funding of municipal housing promised by Lloyd George in 1919. In any event subsidies for house building had proved too costly and by 1922 they had ended except for those paid towards the cost of slum clearance. | |||
Revision as of 21:54, 28 December 2012
After the end of the First World War soldiers were returning with demands for a better country and especially for better housing. The soldiers were in no mood to compromise. A Soviet was set up in Glasgow. The country was in revolt about the slaughter and privations of the First World War. Russia had created a revolution which was encouraging people in parts of Europe to follow suit. At the outbreak of the War the upper classes, which had been well fed and housed all their lives, were graded A1 in the Army. Enormous numbers of others, badly fed and abominably housed, had to be graded C3. This contrast had shocked the country. In 1918, Lloyd George, who could sense the political mood on the wing, coined the phrase 'Homes For Heroes'. It was immensely popular and Lloyd George's rhetoric became government policy as he promised a dramatic funding of municipal housing. The Treasury gave an open-ended authority for money to be spent on housing. The appearance of small groups of new houses in different parts of the country was seen as a token of the changes to come.
Even though the period between 1919 and 1939 is known to be a time of heavy unemployment it was also a time of economic growth. In 1919 and 1920 there was a short boom which collapsed by the end of 1920. By 1921, the country was in the post-war slump. The cut-backs which were to lead to the 1926 General Strike, were being put into place. The hard-faced men were in charge again, and the open-ended housing subsidy was withdrawn. However,by the mid 1920s growth was resumed and continued steadily until 1929. the 1923 and especially the 1924 Housing Act, under the first Labour government, did continue the momentum for Local Authorities to provide houses for low-income families.
The decline in old industries and the building of new factories was coupled with a movement from the older industrial areas in the north to the London suburbs. This created a need for housing. The homes for heroes mood of 1920 had all but disappeared by the start of the 1930s. The massive landslide in 1931 for the National Government marked the end of the power of the Labour party in Parliament, for a while, and Britain became almost a one party state for the rest of the decade. In 1931 the funding difficulties of the Treasury and the few Labour party members in Parliament combined to lessen what pressure there was on the government to implement the dramatic funding of municipal housing promised by Lloyd George in 1919. In any event subsidies for house building had proved too costly and by 1922 they had ended except for those paid towards the cost of slum clearance.