A millstone round your neck? — Building societies in the 1930s and Mortgage default

Abstract

Abstract Owner occupation first became a mass tenure in Britain in the 1930s and was promoted as freedom from rent and landlords. However, as the tenure was dramatically extended outside the middle classes, it was necessary that the tenure's margins were ‘policed’ by an alliance of builder, building society and solicitor. Mortgage agreements were constructed to include a battery of legal and extra‐legal powers so that mortgage default was kept severely in check, and if not kept in check, at least kept quiet, particularly on the vast new private housing estates. Based upon material drawn from a study of the mortgage strikes of 1938–40, and a study of the builders’ pool system, the ways in which building societies constrained new mortgagors are explained. It is suggested that Mann's ‘cage’ metaphor of power structures can deepen the understanding of housing tenures.