Abstract

study aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of Labour’s post-war housing record from both a local and national perspective. The original and innovative methodological approach used here, implies a pre-post analysis in order to answer the research questions. Firstly, a systematic, more descriptive analysis presents an overview of Labour’s housing policy plans and achievements and what it saw as the role of the state therein. It sets out what Labour planned and what its successes and failures were. Secondly, using an intersubjective methodology, the housing achievements are weighted against the initial plans. An analysis of Liverpool City Council’s post-war housing strategy is carried out to determine how Labour’s housing programme was translated locally and to see whether this resulted in changes to local housing policy and practice. The study’s main conclusion is that the Labour government’s housing policy aims resulted mainly in successful outcomes, but there were some failures.
The evidence base for the study derives from a wide range of primary and secondary sources, including government papers obtained at the Public Records Office, Kew, Labour Party records accessed at the Labour History and Archive Study Centre, Manchester, and, for the case study, the Liverpool Record Office provided access to documents relevant to Liverpool City Council’s post-war housing and reconstruction strategy. Secondary sources include both the work of historians of the period and that of housing specialists.