Born of idealism, and once an icon of the Labour movement and pillar of the Welfare State, council housing is now nearing its end. But do its many failings outweigh its positive contributions to public health and wellbeing?
Alison Ravetz here provides the first comprehensive and apolitical history from which to arrive at a balanced judgement. Drawing on the widest possible evidence, from tenant and government records to the built environment itself, she tells the story of British council housing, from its seeds in Victorian reactions to 'the Poor', in philanthropy and model villages,...

This book is a comprehensive and indepth history of British council housing. For political and institutional reasons it operated as a law unto itself for most of its history, but is now undergoing major change and re-integration into mainstream housing and society. The bulk of research and literature on the subject has been from social policy and politics perpectives, and an overall history has not been attempted, other than as chapters or sections of chapters in more general books. This has resulted in a number of important omissions - notably the relation of design and management to the...

Home has a meaning which goes far beyond mere physical structure. It is fundamental to society - socially, economically, historically and culturally. This is an exploration of the evolution of the English domestic environment.

This book, published in 1980, is an iconoclastic account of one of the pillars of the welfare state, British town and country planning, between 1945 and 1975. Always a fine balance between central control and market forces, it was challenged by strains within and between the environmental professions and protest by people dispossessed or alienated by re-shaped urban environments. Remaking Cities critiques the export of western-style planning to the developing world and reviews initiatives rooted in different understandings of 'growth' appearing in those years. Nearly forty years on, many of...

Quarry Hill Flats, once both the pride and shame of its city of Leeds, was an iconic Modernist symbol of the 1930s. It marked the first use of a prefabricated building system for a large-scale council estate, replacing a notorious slum. But it lasted barely a generation - its complete demolition was announced as Alison Ravetz was finishing this study. First published in 1974, this book is unique in its use of all estate records from conception to destruction, as well as in its comprehensive approach, including aspects usually missing in council housing studies - notably the intimate...

Britain's planning system began as 'town and country planning' to repair the ravages of unplanned industrialism and promote ideal environments for the future. Steering a course between left and right, public control and for-profit development, it survived successive booms and busts, broadening to include new concerns like ecology, conservation and community participation. By the 1986, when this book was first published, the system's survival beyond the year 2000 was in doubt. It did endure, but it is now under serious threat from the right, which sees it as obstructing enterprise and the...