Public housing in the United Kingdom
| Public housing in the United Kingdom | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Location | United Kingdom |
| Population | 17% of UK population (2024) |
| Construction | |
| Other information | |
| Famous residents | |
Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. Dwellings built for public or social housing use are built by or for local authorities and known as council houses. Since the 1980s, non-profit housing associations (HA) became more important and subsequently the term "social housing" became widely used — as technically, council housing only refers to properties owned by a local authority — as this embraces both council and HA properties, though the terms are largely used interchangeably.
Before 1865, housing for the poor was provided solely by the private sector. Council houses were then built on council estates — known as schemes in Scotland — where other amenities, like schools and shops, were often also provided. From the 1950s, alongside large developments of terraced and semi-detached housing, blocks of low-rise blocks of flats and maisonettes were widely built. By the 1960s, the emphasis on construction changed to high-rise tower blocks, which carried on to a much lesser degree in the early 1970s. The 1970s saw a switch back to houses, these mainly being detached and semi-detached, as the large-scale council housing expansion came to a halt by the 1980s.
Council houses and flats were often built in mixed estates as part of the transfer to public sector redevelopment following the slum clearances of the private rented back-to-backs of the inner city, along with the large number of overspill estates vastly expanding the outskirts of all cities into the surrounding rural countryside. Council housing was core to the three waves of development in 20th-century of the new town movement of urbanisation — with places such as:
- in the first wave:
- in the second wave:
- with the third wave developing:
Council homes were built to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at reasonable rents to primarily working-class people. Council housing in the mid-20th century included many large suburban council estates, featuring terraced and semi-detached houses, where other amenities like schools and shops were often also provided. By the late 1970s, almost a third of UK households lived in social housing.
Since 1979 council housing stock has been sold to private occupiers under the Right to Buy legislation, and new social housing has mainly been developed and managed by housing associations. A substantial part of the UK population still lives in council housing; in 2024, about 17% of UK households. Approximately 55% of the country's social housing stock is owned by local authorities. Increasingly the stock is managed on a day-to-day basis by arms-length management organisations rather than directly by the authority, and by housing associations.