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                  Housing

                  The local authority function of providing housing emerged out of desire to improve public health and reduce disease. The housing function was therefore initially given to the same local authorities as under the Public Health (Scotland) Act 1867.[1] These were the town councils and police commissioners of burghs or trustees exercising the functions of police commissioners and, in the landward areas, the district committees set up under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 or where these did not exist, the county councils. In 1929 when local government was re-organised the county councils took over the housing function from the abolished district committees, but housing was one of the few functions that was not transferred from small burghs to the county councils. The large burghs and counties of cities also continued to have housing functions.[2] At local government reorganisation in 1975 housing was allocated to the district and islands councils but regional councils as well as district and islands councils were empowered to make arrangements with housing associations to provide housing.[3] In 1996 housing transferred to the new councils.

                  Before 1885 local authorities were enabled by various Acts to demolish properties unfit for human habitation but had no responsibility to replace these or to re-house the inhabitants. Following the 1885 Royal Commission of Inquiry into Housing of the Working Classes, the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885 gave a duty to local authorities to regulate and enforce proper sanitary conditions through byelaws and enabled loans for housing.[4] A further Act in 1890 enabled local authorities to build replacement housing for people displaced by the demolition of unfit housing.[5]

                  In 1912 a Royal Commission on Housing in Scotland was set up ‘to inquire into the housing of the industrial population of Scotland, rural and urban (with special reference in the rural districts to the housing of miners and agricultural labourers); and to report what legislative or administrative action is in their opinion desirable to remedy existing defects.’[6] Reporting in 1917, the majority recommended that the state should accept responsibility for housing the working classes and should provide financial assistance for this.[7]

                  Legislation on housing provision was UK wide. The Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919 enabled the building of new houses by local authorities with subsidies from central government.[8] The Logie Housing scheme in Dundee, which opened in 1920, was the first council housing estate built in Scotland under this act. The Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924 increased government subsidies to be paid to local authorities to build housing for rent for low paid workers and extended the time over which the subsidy was paid from 20 to 40 years.[9] During the 1920s and 1930s additional funding to local authorities focused on slum clearance.[10]

                  In 1944 and 1947 the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee published two influential reports on design of housing and on the need to link social housing with industrial re-generation.[11] Legislation in 1944 extended subsidies to general housing rather than just slum clearance and enabled payments to the Scottish Special Housing Association, while the Ministry of Works produced pre-fabricated houses for local construction.[12] In 1946 subsidies were increased with the emphasis put on improving existing housing rather than new build.[13]

                  In 1957 local authorities were enabled to provide housing in response to other overpopulated areas and to make overspill agreements.[14] By 1987, local authorities had been given duties to make grants towards improvements of private housing stock, support homeless people, ensure that the private housing stock was fit for purpose, inspect for overcrowding and register houses in multiple occupation.[15] However, in 1980, tenants were given the right to buy their council house and local authorities were also enabled to make loans to tenants who wanted to exercise that right.[16] This right to buy significantly reduced the council housing stock and local authorities therefore changed their emphasis from provider to regulator.

                  Housing registers, housing plans, tenants handbooks and other printed matter may be found in local authority archives services, but it is unusual for records of tenancies and letting of council housing to survive. Records relating to the construction of housing by local authorities can be found in the building warrants and plans, as well as in planning and development files and minutes of housing committees. The National Records of Scotland holds files on the Royal Commissions on Housing, the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee, government support for housing initiatives, policy, planning, development of housing legislation and other housing matters (reference code DD6).

                  Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2021)

                  Bibliography

                  Checkland, Olive and Sydney Industry and Ethos, Scotland 1832-1914 (Edinburgh University Press, 1989)

                  Ferguson, Keith, An introduction to local government in Scotland (The Planning Exchange, 1984)

                  Gordon, William, ‘Housing and Town Planning’ in Source book and history of administrative law in Scotland ed. by M. R. McLarty (Hodge, 1956), pp. 148-60

                  Niven, Douglas, The Development of Housing in Scotland (Croom Helm, 1979)

                  Rodger, R., ‘Urbanisation in twentieth century Scotland’ in Scotland in the Twentieth Century ed. by T. M. Devine and R. J. Finlay, (Edinburgh University Press, 1996), pp. 122-152

                  Smith, James & Douglas Robertson, ‘Local elites and social control: building council houses in Stirling between the wars’ Urban History 40.2 (May 2013), pp. 336-54

                  Whyte, W. E., Local Government in Scotland (Hodge & Co, 1936)

                   

                  References

                  [1] Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c.70) s.96; Public Health (Scotland) Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c.101).

                  [2] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V c.25) s.2; Sch 1.

                  [3] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c.65) ss.130-131.

                  [4] Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c.72).

                  [5] Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c.70).

                  [6] Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Industrial Population of Scotland, Rural and Urban, Edinburgh 1917 Cmnd. 8731.

                  [7] Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Industrial Population of Scotland, Rural and Urban, Edinburgh 1917 Cmnd. 8731 para.1938.

                  [8] Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. V c.35).

                  [9] Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924 (14 & 15 Geo. V c.35).

                  [10] Housing Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. V c.39).

                  [11] Scottish Housing Advisory Committee ‘Planning our new homes’ (Edinburgh: Department of Health for Scotland, 1944); Scottish Housing Advisory Committee ‘Modernising our homes’ (Edinburgh: Department of Health for Scotland, 1947).

                  [12] Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act, 1944 (7 & 8 Geo. VI c.36); Housing (Scotland) Act 1944 (7 & 8 Geo. VI c.39).

                  [13] Housing (Financial Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. VI c.54).

                  [14] Housing and Town Development (Scotland) Act 1957 (c.38).

                  [15] Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 (c.26).

                  [16] Tenants’ Rights etc (Scotland) Act 1980(c.52); Housing Act 1980 (c.51).