The role of public utility societies in early British town planning and housing reform, 1901–36

Abstract

The significance of limited dividend companies in the pre‐1914 housing reform campaign is well recognized, but this paper examines the role of the public utility societies, which were a specialist form of combined limited dividend company and Friendly Society. This account concentrates on the role of the societies in early British town planning, commencing with the foundation of Ealing Tenants Ltd in 1901 and ending with the formal creation of ‘housing associations’ in the 1936 Housing Act. The interaction between the societies, Government legislation and the garden city campaign is particularly examined; the societies were linked to the pre‐1914 Liberal land reform campaign. They also answered the needs of the garden city pioneers at Letchworth, enabling artisan housing to be provided without overt paternalism in an atmosphere of cooperation. However, it is argued that the ‘co‐partnership’ ideal of tenants actually controlling their own society and houses was undermined by constitutional procedures based on conventional business practice; ultimately outside investors held control. Liberal housing policy prior to 1914 encouraged the societies as an alternative to municipal housing through advantageous loans, but the 1919 Housing and Town Planning Act intended the societies to act as an auxiliary to the municipal programme. The model constitutions of the Edwardian era survived but as a condition of State subsidy. An ‘authorized associations’ policy emerged in the Housing (Additional Powers) Act of 1919 and the 1925 Town Planning Act which encouraged both limited dividend companies and societies to promote garden cities, garden suburbs and garden villages. After the First World War the societies became constrained by a more specialist role as early housing associations, although continuing to promote the image of the garden city movement.