In a bid to defeat tyrannical landlords, sub-human conditions and inflated prices, successive post-war British governments embarked on a mass house building programme. For the millions and millions of people housed after 1945, council housing offered the basic human right of stability and comfort, enabling them to flourish. In the next decade, the number of renters will outnumber the rent seekers and the clamour for affordable rents will be insurmountable.

With it marks the end of the forty-year crusade towards a property-owning democracy. Now a new generation of middle class workers are locked out of the house party. There are now two factions those who have financial support from their parents for a deposit and those who don’t. For decades the media judged the success of a government on their ability to stimulate house prices.

Yet nowhere is the division more stark than in the widening political priorities of the owners and the renters. Among its fraught battle lines are the obvious Leave v Remain, North v South and the Graduates v Non-Graduates. The 21st century perception of the council estate as depicted in The Streets – Original Pirate Material.īritain is a divided country. Municipal Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Council Housing is published by Verso. As Britain endures its worst housing crisis since the war, with 1.8m households on the waiting list, can Labour revitalise the municipal dream? The drop has led to an inflated housing market, insecure tenancies and a sustained cultural attack on the working class. In 1979 42% of the British population lived in a council house.

Tides of war not working