2. Provoking 1919 and Beyond: Housing Conditions in Rural England

Providing a baseline for appreciating the dire state of rural housing early in the twentieth-century, this chapter explores the circumstances that provoked the British state to intervene in 1919 with a major programme of local government new-build for the working-classes. Health improvements, fear of social unrest, inaction by private builders and political party competition all made contributions to state involvement, which extended well beyond 1919 as alternatives to municipal provision lacked favour. The state was drawn to intervene as its earlier actions had diminished incentives amongst private landlords to build or even upgrade properties. But addressing poor housing conditions was not made easy because concepts central to evaluations were contested, and counts of accommodation deficiencies were influenced by capacities to respond to them. For national authorities, serious information gaps made assessment of relative needs problematical. Using the limited information that is available, rural housing conditions in 1971 are explored. This reveals diversity in rural housing circumstances, distinguishing traditional agrarian-based districts from others, as well as pointing to conditions in rural deficits that were not so dissimilar from those in cities.