History: How we used to Live – Social Housing

The Industrial Revolution led to a huge influx of workers from the country to the city, and an explosion in the population. This put huge pressures on existing housing stock and led to overcrowding, poor sanitation and outbreaks of disease as people struggled to find somewhere to live close to work. Cities expanded rapidly, but much of the new housing was both poor in quality and expensive to rent. Local authorities and the government came under increasing pressure to take action, particularly on slum clearance. However, the problem was not really tackled until the 20th century, especially with the promise of ‘Homes Fit for Heroes’ after World War I.

This course will look at the housing problems of the 19th century through to today and see how individual philanthropy led the way in developing the idea of social/ affordable housing. We will examine the way private enterprise tried to meet the housing need and how governments took steps to help councils solve the problems of poor housing. After reviewing the successes of the housing boom of the 1930s and post-war period, we will consider the problems of modern social housing over the last fifty years and some possible solutions