Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924

Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924

Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An act to amend the financial provisions of the Housing &c. act, 1923 and for other purposes incidental thereto or connected therewith.
Citation	14 & 15 Geo. 5. c. 35
Dates
Royal assent	7 August 1924
Other legislation
Amends	Housing, &c. Act 1923

The Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924 (14 & 15 Geo. 5. c. 35) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

The act built upon the previous Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919, by increasing government subsidies to be paid to local authorities to build municipal housing for rent for low paid workers from £6 to £9. It also extended the time over which the subsidy was paid from 20 to 40 years.

The act was introduced by the first Labour government, and was known as the Wheatley Housing Act after John Wheatley, the minister who introduced it.

The Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald dubbed the act 'our most important legislative item'. This measure went some way towards rectifying the problem of the housing shortage, caused by the disruption of the building trade during the First World War and the inability of working-class tenants to rent decent, affordable housing. Wheatley was able to provide public housing to council tenants, as against the previous government's commitment to privatisation. This landmark act subsidised the construction of 521,700 rented homes at controlled rents by 1933, when the subsidy for encouraging local authority housing construction was abolished.

According to one historical study, Wheatley’s houses had “slightly larger dimensions than Chamberlain’s,” and were also the first to be “equipped compulsorily with a bathroom instead of a bath” in the scullery.

References

• Modern Britain: Life and Work through Two Centuries of Change by T.K. Derry and T.L. Jarman

Further reading

• Image of the Act on the Parliamentary website