The Administration of Municiapl Housing Estates
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1931.tb02017.x |
| Author | Jean M. Thompson |
| Date | 01 April 1931 |
| Published date | 01 April 1931 |
The
Administration
of
Municipal
Housing
Estates
By
JEAN
M.
THOMPSON,
B.Com.
Estates Manager, County Borough
of
Rotherham
[Read before the Institute of Public Administration at Sheffield,
February,
19311
NE
of
the most remarkable devclopments of public enterprise
0
since the war has been the building of large numbers of
dwelling-houses by local authorities. Before the war, during the
years
1890-1914,
less than
I
per cent.
of
the houses in
this
country
were built by public authorities. Since
1920,
however, the country
has taken
a
collective responsibility
for
housing the workers
in
a
way never assumed before, and, realising that an adequate solution
of
the housing problem will help materially towards the success
of
a
number
of
other branches
of
public administration,
it
is at last making
an organised effort
to
deal
with
the problem left
by
the Industrial
Revolution.
Hitherto, public attention in
this
matter has been very largely
concentrated on the erection of the houses. In view
of
the magni-
tude
of
the problem and the urgent need
for
houses,
it
is not
sur-
prising that local authorities have up to
now
seen the question
in
terms of the production
of
houses and have assumed that once
houses were built and occupied their problem would be solved. The
system under which
the
houses when built are allocated, and the
subsequent management
of
the estates, have received but little
attention, although experience would tend to demonstrate that even
good and well-planned property may under certain circumstances
degenerate into slums.
Now
after ten years, local authorities are beginning to realise that
in many respects their problems are only just beginning and that the
building
of
the houses raises problems in many ways less acute than
the subsequent human and social aspects
of
the administration
of
the
estates. While some municipal estates are well managed, it
is
clear
that
this
side of the housing question has received insufficient atten-
tion, and up and down
the
country, one sees and hears much of heavy
148
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