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A Contrived CountrysideThe English Disease: Capacity and Capability for Housing Improvement

A Contrived Countryside: The English Disease: Capacity and Capability for Housing Improvement [The core question in this chapter is whether the operating environment of rural councils gave a firm base for active housing interventions. Examining the resource base of councils shows that even national assessments deemed rural authorities had insufficient capacity to fund new-build effectively, with weak funding streams carrying into inadequate staff numbers and skills. Adding to the discomfort, countryside builders were of questionable reliability in housing provision. Their existence was unstable, their skills limited and their willingness to engage with council work low; commonly resulting in few applications to build council dwellings, alongside inflated prices for the standard of building specified. Rural homes were often built to a lower standard than urban, in part due to the non-availability of water and sewer systems. This was cast in positive light early in the century, as rents were kept down and large gardens enabled crop growth to supplement wages. Later, lack of supply was a handicap, as new-build began to be refused where services were not available. Yet, in the 1950s, the government cut funds for their provision, proclaiming cities should have priority as their water and sewer systems paid their own way.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Contrived CountrysideThe English Disease: Capacity and Capability for Housing Improvement

Part of the Local and Urban Governance Book Series
Hoggart, Keith
Springer Journals — Mar 27, 2021
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87 pages

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Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
ISBN
978-3-030-62650-1
Pages
237 –323
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-62651-8_5
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The core question in this chapter is whether the operating environment of rural councils gave a firm base for active housing interventions. Examining the resource base of councils shows that even national assessments deemed rural authorities had insufficient capacity to fund new-build effectively, with weak funding streams carrying into inadequate staff numbers and skills. Adding to the discomfort, countryside builders were of questionable reliability in housing provision. Their existence was unstable, their skills limited and their willingness to engage with council work low; commonly resulting in few applications to build council dwellings, alongside inflated prices for the standard of building specified. Rural homes were often built to a lower standard than urban, in part due to the non-availability of water and sewer systems. This was cast in positive light early in the century, as rents were kept down and large gardens enabled crop growth to supplement wages. Later, lack of supply was a handicap, as new-build began to be refused where services were not available. Yet, in the 1950s, the government cut funds for their provision, proclaiming cities should have priority as their water and sewer systems paid their own way.]

Published: Mar 27, 2021

Keywords: Rural government resources; Rural builders; Water-sewer supply; House-building constraints; Poor productivity

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