Rural political leaders and social housing provision in early post-war England

Abstract

English rural councils have long been criticised for slothful responses to local housing deficiencies. Investigated in the context of all English councils over 1945–1974, housing policy shifts in 10 rural districts identified as either higher- or lower-performers nationally are explored. Differences in social house-building rates were associated with divergent attitudes toward social housing as well as uneven dynamism in policy implementation. Yet these influences were subdued compared to national policy shifts that first encouraged then bore down on rural social housing. In times of national restraint, higher-performing councils cultivated national government predilections in order to promote local goals or found new mechanisms for channelling resources to meet local needs. Lower-performing councils were more inclined to follow the slipstream of national direction, though not necessarily with enthusiasm. Councils did act out of character, or intensified inner drives, if prompted by political trauma or lured by locally-based national projects. Assumptions of rural-urban leadership differences were found wanting, while the slippage of some high-performing councils into lower-performing ranks raised questions over policy emphases on localist drivers for positive rural change.