The above picture (attributed to Howard Coster on the relevant Wikipedia page) shows Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health 1945-1951 in Clement Attlee’s Labour government, and thereby responsible for housing in Britain. His, and the government’s, policy was to focus on building council houses rather than leaving housing provision to the free market. As in the 1930s, this was to be put into practice by local authorities ‘on the ground’ with financial support from central government in the form of grants or long-term loans at preferential interest rates. This policy, with some changes in funding details was continued through the 1950s by the Conservative government.
This, in turn, led to hundreds of thousands of houses being built which today still grace almost every community across the land. These houses, built as semis or in terraces and easily identified by the full-length ridge roof, were very well-built and to high specifications for the time, the brickwork today often being as good as when laid. Most had indoor bathrooms and w.c.s although most of the yorkist ranges that formed the fireplace of the kitchen/sitting room have subsequently been replaced. Three bedrooms became standard for a family.
The eastern boundary of Hull was vastly expanded by the building of Bilton Grange, Longhill and Greatfield estates, all three exhibiting some aspects of Parker and Unwin ideas.
Also the potential for prefabricated construction systems was recognised with Airey and Tarran houses being examples of housing with a steel skeleton and pre=cast sectional wall panels. All this so-much-so that by 1960 a quarter of the nation’s housed population lived as tenants in council houses.
Bevan envisaged council estates where there was social mixing between classes – doctors, dentists, teachers, lawyers, working people all living on estates together. This vision was reflected in the planed for the New Towns of the 1950s and 1960s but not so much on urban estates. Purpose-built housing was often allocated to schoolteachers with local education authorities advertising these as an incentive to prospective interviewees.