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Britain Begins to Rebuild her Cities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Coleman Woodbury
Coleman Woodbury*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

During the past few months, many Americans have been preparing verbally to bury Great Britain and her Empire. They seem to consider this the prerogative, if not the duty, of relatives of one who has long fought off various economic and social ills and more recently has suffered a series of bad setbacks.

Without doubt, Britain's economic position is serious. A vigorous, diversified, international trade is essential to maintaining or increasing her prewar standard of living. Before the war, she paid for roughly sixty per cent of her imports by tangible exports of goods and materials of various kinds. The other forty per cent was taken care of by returns on her foreign investments and by shipping, financial, insurance, and other services. The war and its aftermath have cut down alarmingly her foreign exchange from these latter sources and, at the same time, have added to her overseas expenditures to meet financial charges on her war borrowings, to maintain troops, and to meet her share of occupation and rehabilitation costs in other countries.

In short, Britain can maintain the standard of living of most of her population only by increasing her exports substantially above prewar levels. As the sign-boards say: “To fill the shops, we must fill the ships.” And this must be done against the handicaps of war losses and damage, labor shortages, loss of many prewar markets, widespread fatigue, a limited diet, and last but not least, obsolete equipment in such basic industries as coal and textiles.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 41 , Issue 5 , October 1947 , pp. 901 - 920
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1947

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References

1 See two White Papers: (a) Statistical Material Presented During the Washington Negotiations (Cmd. 6707—Dec. 1945—including Appendix VII); (b) Economic Survey for 1947 (Cmd. 7046—Feb., 1947).

2 White Paper on Housing (Cmd. 6609—Mar., 1945).

3 Housing Return for England and Wales, 31st December, 1946. (Cmd. 7019— Jan., 1947).

4 In judging the recovery in British building, it should not be overlooked that as late as the end of 1946 approximately fifty-seven per cent of those employed in housing were estimated officially to be working on repairs—war damage and other. (Return, 31st December, 1946, Cmd. 7019, p. 27).

5 For 1946 figures, see Veterans Emergency Housing Program, Vol. 1, No. 8 (Jan., 1947), p. 5 Google Scholar.

6 For discussion of this, see Parliamentary Debates—House of Commons (Hansard), Oct. 21, 1946—particularly pp. 1334–1355Google Scholar.

7 Ibid., p. 1376, and Dec, 1946, Housing Return (Cmd. 7019), p. 27.

8 Housing (Cmd. 6609—Mar., 1945), p. 2.

9 Town and Country Planning Act, 1944 (7 and 8, Geo. 6, Ch. 47, Nov. 17, 1944).

10 Wells, Henry W., Implementing the Plans—Great Britain (XVIIIth International Congress for Housing and Town Planning, 1946), p. 4 Google Scholar.

11 See, for example, Forshaw, and Abercrombie, , County of London Plan (Macmillan Co., 1943)Google Scholar; Abercrombie, , Greater London Plan, 1944 (His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1945)Google Scholar; Nicholas, , City of Manchester Plan (Jarrold and Sons, 1945)Google Scholar.

12 Local Government (Boundary Commission) Act, 1945 (8 and 9, Geo. 6, Ch. 38).

13 Statutory Rules and Orders, 1945, No. 1569—Local Government, England and Wales—Alteration of Areas; Report of the Local Government Boundary Commission for the Year 1946 (His Majesty's Stationery Office). For a critical view of the Commission's powers and methods, see Robson, William A., “Local Government Reform,” The Sunday Times, Aug. 25, 1946 Google Scholar.

14 New Towns Act (9 and 10 Geo. 6. Ch. 68—1st August, 1946). See also Final Report of the New Towns Committee (Cmd. 6876—July, 1946), Interim Report (Cmd. 6759—Mar. 1946), and Second Interim Report (Cmd. 6794—Apr., 1946).

15 An interesting side-light on the formative days of this program is the court action brought by three local residents to prevent development of Stevenage, the first “new town” in the London area. The action was based largely on the allegation that the Minister of Town and Country Planning, the Rt. Hon. Lewis Silkin, did not act with an open mind in approving, after the required public hearing, the Stevenage New Towns (Designation) Order. Evidence of this charge was largely from a speech Mr. Silkin made in Stevenage before the public hearing was held. Replying to hecklers, he made remarks that were taken to mean that he had already determined to go ahead with the Stevenage development. The court of original jurisdiction, the High Court of Justice, found for the complainants and directed that the order be quashed. On appeal, this finding was reversed by the Court of Appeal, and the House of Lords also upheld the action of the Minister. See digest of final decision, Franklin and Others v. Minister of Town and Country Planning (before Lord Thankerton, Lord Porter, Lord Uthwatt, Lord du Parcq, and Lord Normand), in The Times, July 25, 1947, p. 2 Google Scholar.

16 For a different view on this point, see Private Enterprise Housing; Report of the Private Enterprise Sub-Committee of the Central Housing Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health (His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1944)Google Scholar.

17 Circular 92/46 of the Ministry of Health, Apr. 30, 1946.

18 See Bowley, Marian, Housing and the State, 1919–1944 (George Allen and Unwin, 1945), Appendix II, Table 2, p. 271 Google Scholar.

19 “Average Earnings and Working Hours in the Principal Industries at October 1946,” Ministry of Labour Gazette, Apr., 1947, pp. 106–116 Google Scholar, and Monthly Digest of Statistics (Central Statistical Office), Sept., 1946, p. 116 Google Scholar.

20 Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946 (9 and 10 Geo. 6, Ch. 48, Apr. 18, 1946).

21 Developments on this front during 1947 are not encouraging. During its first eighteen months, the Labor government wisely refused to make the serious mistake of its predecessor, the coalition government of Mr. Churchill (duplicated in extreme form by our National Housing Agency under Mr. Wilson Wyatt) of setting and advertising high-sounding housing goals before anyone could intelligently guess what amount of housing could or would be built in the immediate future. Not until January, 1947, did the British government announce “an estimate of the total amount of work on the construction of new houses which the Government considered it reasonable to expect the building industry to carry out during the year. The program is based on specified assumptions as to the supply of labor, materials, and components, which must be the main governing factors. These assumptions are drawn from known facts on progress made during 1946 and from the best calculations that can be made at the present stage; but these can be tested only by the course of events during the year” (Housing Programme for 1947, Cmd. 7021, p. 2). In short, this program was for the completion during 1947 of 240,000 permanent and 60,000 temporary houses—300,000 in all. This total would be roughtly equivalent to the record rates of house-building in Britain in the late thirties and, incidentally, to 950,000 to 1,000,000 units in this country.

The coal-distribution and other transport troubles late in the winter forced the government to announce that its 1947 housing program might have to be reduced. Continued low production of coal aggravates the lumber shortage, which the program recognized as one of the most vulnerable points in future housing production. It is now (August, 1947) too soon to say what the latest “British crisis” (in its general trade and dollar position) may mean for housing. Probably, however, housing will suffer further from the lumber and labor shortages as the strained resources of the economy are forced even further into production for export.

Quite as important for the housing-city rebuilding program is the report of recent visitors that the recurring economic troubles are beginning to undermine the interest and hope that marked its early stages. No one, however, ought to exaggerate this trend. British determination can be dampened, but not as easily as many people would like to believe.

22 Radio broadcast by Mr. Churchill, Mar. 26, 1944. Excerpts in Britain and Tomorrow—British Official Statements, Vol. IV (Sept., 1943—Dec., 1944), p. 37 Google Scholar.

23 White Paper—Temporary Housing Programme (Cmd. 6686—Oct., 1945).

24 Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1946 (9 and 10 Geo. 6, Ch. 48), Sec. 17.

25 Introduced in January, 1947, as the Town and Country Planning Bill, 1947. According to the Associated Press, it finally passed the House of Lords on August 6, 1947. Its most controversial sections deal with the the old problem of land values based on expected change from lower to higher income uses. If its solution proves practicable, it may well be the most significant measure in the history of modern city and metropolitan planning.

26 Some question may be raised as to whether this check was strong enough. See the series of articles on “The Housing Programme” in The Times, Apr. 22, 23, and 24, 1947 Google Scholar.

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