The official involvement in housing dates back to a mid-Victorian concern with slum properties as breeding grounds for epidemic disease, vice and lawlessness . This left Britain housing its population in a crumbling Victorian legacy in the first half of the twentieth-century, which was now widely regarded as one of the sharpest indictments against laissez-faire society . Before 1914 only ten per cent of homes were owner-occupied , almost all the rest being privately rented from land lords; small property-owners with either no intention or little resources to maintain or improve their houses. Nearly half of all households lacked the sole use of a bathroom, two in every five households lacked a bath at all, and nearly a quarter had no exclusive use of a toilet . Slum conditions were uneven but widespread, in 1911 almost a third of the population of Newcastle and Sunderland, and over a half of Glasgow, lived in the overcrowded conditions of the one

The years from World War One to 1960 saw the drawing together of diverse trends and threads into an increasingly tight and disciplined recipe of planning, this was all heralded under the banner of the " Modern Movement " . It was seen by architects and town planners as a natural battle against successive external crises-whether it be international economic slumps or war, and a positive move against urban squalor . The objective of the planners was to provide a "...central infrastructure of highways and walkways, layers and ledges promising shelter, warmth and family freedom " , to provide the nation with its modern, clean, healthy utopia.

Post-war Britain required a re-development scheme for the 200,000 houses that had been destroyed, 250,000 badly damaged and her newly enlightened growing population with greater expectations and demands for improved conditions . There was complete two party agreement about the need to initiate a substantial house building programme after many years of neglect. In the Labour Party manifesto was written "Housing will be one of the greatest and one of the earlier tests of a Government's real determination to put the nation first. Labour's pledge is firm and direct-it will proceed with a housing programme with the maximum practical speed until every family in this island has a good standard of accommodation " . Housing policy was the responsibility of the Ministry of Health until 1951 when it was transferred to the new Ministr

Some common words found in the essay are:
Garden City, , Modern Movement, John Richards, Planning Overcrowding, Post-war Britain, Labour Party, Ballantyne Report, World War, United Kingdom, victorian urban, town planners, households lacked, streets sky,
Approximate Word count = 1131
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)