Tenants arise! Consumerism, tenants and the challenge to council authority in Manchester, 1968-92

Social History

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 60-78

  Shapely, Peter ^a  

^a BANGOR UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 31844456078     PISSN: 03071022     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03071020500424532     Document Type: Article

References (140)

1. P. Dunleavy, The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain, 1945-1975: A Study of Corporate Power and Professional Influence in the Welfare State (Oxford, 1981), 31.
2. Studies include S. Croft and P. Beresford, 'The politics of participation' in D. Taylor (ed.), Critical Social Policy: A Reader (London, 1996)
3. S. Lowe, Urban Social Movements (Basingstoke, 1986)
4. Charlotte Balsom, Empowerment through Tenant Participation in Local Authority Housing, 1979-1997 (Leicester, 2000)
5. Ian Cole, Tenant Participation in England (Sheffield, 2000)
6. Lynn Hancock, Tenant Participation and the Housing Classes Debate (Liverpool, 1994)
7. David Clapham and Keith Kintrea, Housing Co-operatives in Britain: Achievements and Prospects (Harlow, 1992)
8. and A. Ravertz, The Government of Space: Town Planning in Modern Society (London, 1986)
9. and Council Housing and Culture: The History of a Social Experiment (London, 2001).
10. Dunleavy, op. cit.;
11. S. Ward, Planning and Urban Change (London, 1994)
12. L. Esher, A Broken Wave: The Rebuilding of England 1940-1980 (London, 1981)
13. O. A. Hartley, 'The relationship between central and local authorities', Public Administration, XLIX (1971)
14. G. Towers, Shelter is Not Enough: Transforming Multi-Storey Housing (Bristol, 2000).
15. See, for example, P. Shapely, D. Tanner and A. Walling, 'Civic culture and housing policy in Manchester, 1945-1979', Twentieth Century British History, XV, 4 (2004), 410-424.
16. See also, for example, Miles Glendinning and Stefan Muthesius, Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (New Haven, 1994)
17. C. L. Andrews, Tenants and Town Hall (London, 1979)
18. J. B. Cullingworth, Housing and Local Government (London, 1966)
19. Sue Goss, Local Labour and Local Government (Edinburgh, 1988)
20. W. Hampton, 'Optimism and growth' in C. Binfield, R. Childs, R. Harper, D. Hey, D. Martin and G. Tweedale (eds), The History of the City of Sheffield, 1843-1993 (Sheffield, 1993)
21. Patricia L. Garside and K. Young, Metropolitan London. Politics and Urban Change 1837-1981 (London, 1982)
22. N. Hayes, 'Civic perceptions: Housing and local decision-making in English cities in the 1920s', Urban History, XXVII, 2, (2000).
23. Interest in consumer issues has grown rapidly among historians. Most have focused on the growth in the consumer market from the eighteenth century and in the development of mass marketing and department stores. See especially J. Brewer, 'The error of our ways: Historians and the birth of consumer society', Royal Society Public Lecture, 23 September 2003
24. F. Trentmann 'Beyond consumerism: New historical perspectives on consumption', Journal of Contemporary History, XXXIX, 3 (2004), 373-401.
25. See also F.Trentmann, 'Bread,milk and democracy: Consumption and citizenship in twentieth century Britain'
26. and M. Hilton, 'Consumer politics in post-war Britain' in M. Daunton and M. Hilton (eds), The Politics of Consumption: Material Culture and Citizenship in Europe and America (Oxford, 2001)
27. J. Birchall, 'Council tenants: Sovereign consumers or pawns in the game?' in J. Birchall (ed.), Housing Policy in the 1990s (New York, 1992)
28. F. Kornbluh, '"To fulfil their rightly needs". Consumerism and the welfare rights movement', Radical History Review, LXIX (Autumn 1997).
29. Raymond Williams recognized that consumerism had moved into the public sector in 1976. See Daunton and Hilton, op. cit., 31.
30. ibid., 13-15, 23-4.
31. A prime example is Lord Michael Young. See, for example, M. Francis, Ideas and Policies under Labour, 1945-1951: Building a New Britain (Manchester, 1997).
32. See also M. Clapson, Invincible Green Suburbs: Social Change and Urban Disposal in Post War England (Manchester, 1998)
33. A. Olechnowicz, Working Class Housing in England Between the Wars: The Becontree Estate (Oxford, 1997).
34. Daunton and Hilton, op. cit., 2-3 and 12.
35. This shift was suggested in ibid., 32.
36. ibid., 26-32.
37. The need to expand the idea of consumerism is highlighted by Trentmann, 'Beyond consumerism', op. cit., 399-400.
38. R. S. Cuthbert, 'Tenant Participation in Public Sector Housing: A Case Study of Glasgow' (M.Sc. thesis, University of Stirling, 1988).
39. New organizations, such as the Consumers' Association, established in 1957, were formed to protect consumers. Using Swedish and US consumer protection models, it attempted to inform and protect consumers through its campaigning magazine Which? See Hilton, op. cit., 247-50.
40. See M. Hilton, 'The fable of the sheep, or, private virtues, public vices: The consumer revolution of the twentieth century', Past and Present, vol. 176, no. 1 (2002), 230-9.
41. Y. Gabriel and T. Lang, The Unmanageable Consumer (London, 1996), 160.
42. ibid., 161.
43. ibid., 240-53.
44. ibid., 21.
45. See Steve Fielding, The Labour Governments 1964-1970: Labour and Cultural Change, vol. 1 (Manchester, 2003), 191-217
46. L. Black, The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain, 1951-64: Old Labour, New Britain? (Basingstoke, 2003).
47. ibid., 7.
48. ibid., 15.
49. (Manchester University Settlement), Ancoats: A Study of a Clearance Area, Report of a Survey made in 1937-1938 (Manchester, 1945).
50. ibid.
51. ibid.
52. (Hulme Housing Association),Preliminary Report, 15 May 1932.
53. Housing Committee Report to City Council 1942, 533.
54. T. Tsubaki, 'Planners and the public: British popular opinion on housing during the Second World War', Contemporary British History, XIV, II (2000), 81-98.
55. See N. Tiratsoo, Reconstruction, Affluence and Labour Politics: Coventry 1945-60 (New York, 1991).
56. (City of Manchester), 1945 Redevelopment Plan, Preface.
57. A Walling, 'Modernization, Policy Debate and Organization in the Labour Party 1951-64' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales Bangor, 2001), 254. This was also the case in other cities such as Coventry.
58. See J. Hasegawa, Replanning the Blitzed City Centre: A Comparative Study of Bristol, Coventry, and Southampton, 1941-1950 (Buckingham, 1992).
59. ibid., 31.
60. ibid., 32.
61. Councils often displayed a condescending, negative and restrictive attitude towards their tenants. See, for example, Ravetz, op. cit., 122-4.
62. Goss, op. cit., 54.
63. See also K. Newton, Second City Politics, Democratic Processes and Decision-Making in Birmingham (Oxford, 1976).
64. Interview with Councillor William Egerton, 25 January 2002.
65. Interview with Gerald Kaufman, 14 February 2002.
66. City and Suburban News, 31 August 1956.
67. Cheshire Life, September 1969.
68. Hyde Reporter, 4 October 1963.
69. G. A. Wheale, 'Citizen Participation in the Rehabilitation of Housing in Moss Side East' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester, 1979), 7.
70. ibid.
71. R. H. Ward, 'Residential Succession and Race Relations in Moss Side, Manchester' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester, 1975), 206.
72. The gender issue is so important that it demands separate study.
73. Guardian, 14 December 1972.
74. Minutes of Manchester and Salford Housing Action Meeting, Manchester University Community Action, 2 April 1973. All MASHA material is deposited at Manchester Central Reference Library.
75. MASHA, newsletter, 16 April 1973.
76. ibid.
77. See also B. Natton, 'The future for housing associations'
78. in L. Hancock, 'Tenant Participation and the Housing Classes Debate' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1994).
79. See, for example, MASHA minutes, 24 April 1973
80. 'Haykin Residents Association Survey', August 1974.
81. ibid.
82. MASHA minutes, 29 January 1974.
83. Ward, op. cit., 208.
84. ibid.
85. ibid.
86. Guardian, 20 December 1974.
87. 'Moss Side People's Paper', November 1970, Manchester Central Reference Library.
88. MASHA newsletter No. 2, February 1975.
89. See, for example, P. Shapely, 'The press and the system built developments of inner-city Manchester', Manchester Region History Review, XVI (2002-3), 30-9.
90. Manchester Evening News, 24 October 1975.
91. ibid., 23 June 1973.
92. ibid., 24 February 1978.
93. ibid.
94. (Manchester Housing Workshop), Hulme Crescents (Manchester, 1980), 18.
95. Tenants even occupied the Hulme Project office for seven weeks. See Ravetz, op. cit., 230.
96. Manchester Evening News, 6 September 1977.
97. Minutes of MASHA meeting, 24 April 1973.
98. Ardwick Branch, Labour Party minutes, 8 September 1966.
99. ibid.
100. Labour Group Policy Committee, Manchester Council, minutes, 17 October 1975.
101. 'Newsletter for the Moss Side Housing Action Area', No. 1, December 1975.
102. (Manchester Housing Workshop), Hulme Crescents, 17.
103. Labour Group, Manchester Council, minutes, 1977.
104. Hancock, op. cit., 13.
105. ibid., 371.
106. Manchester Evening News, 22 February 1985.
107. Sheffield's left-wing council had introduced a tenant consultation policy in 1984 to enable tenant representatives to sit on housing committee meetings. See Binfield et al., op. cit., 163.
108. ibid.
109. ibid.
110. Manchester Evening News, 22 February 1985.
111. ibid.
112. For the New Left, supporting the rights of certain groups in the community was central to their entire approach, whether it was ethnic groups, the gay community or tenants. See S. Quilley, 'Manchester first: from municipal socialism to the entrepreneurial city', International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, XXIV, 3 (September 2000).
113. Ravetz, op. cit., 231.
114. ibid.
115. Tenants Guide to the Hulme Study, June 1989, Manchester Central Reference Library.
116. ibid.
117. Ravetz, op. cit., 231-2.
118. K. Jacobs, 'Revisiting Hulme', Town and Country Planning (November 1998), 339.
119. Hilary Russell, 'City Challenge - a mainstream model for the future', Town and Country Planning (April 1998), 103.
120. R. Ramwell and H. Saltburn, Trick or Treat? City Challenge and the Regeneration of Hulme (Manchester, 1998) 50-68.
121. ibid., 6.
122. C. Johnstone, 'The tenants' movement and housing struggles in Glasgow, 1945-1990' (Ph.D. thesis, Glasgow, 1992).
123. P. A. Baldock, 'Tenants' Voice: A Study of Council Tenants' Organizations, with particular reference to those in the City of Sheffield, 1961-71' (Ph.D. thesis, University of Sheffield, 1970-1).
124. ibid., 2.
125. See, for example, Hancock, op. cit., 146-7.
126. For a detailed account of tenant action by the city's twenty-three different groups in Sheffield see Baldock, op. cit., 211-52.
127. Binfield et al., op. cit., 145.
128. ibid., 146.
129. See Binfield et al., op. cit., 146.
130. For tenant action in Nottingham, see R. Gosling, Personal Copy, A Memoir of the Sixties (London, 1980).
131. See, for example, Hancock, op. cit., 320
132. Richardson, op. cit., 242.
133. Richardson, op. cit.;
134. J. S. G. Rao, 'Power and Participation: Tenants' Involvement in Housing' (M.Phil. thesis, Brunel University, 1983).
135. See Hancock, op. cit.
136. Binfield et al., op. cit., 146.
137. Richardson, op. cit., 87-8.
138. Interview with Councilor William Egerton, 25 January 2002.
139. ibid., 323.
140. Daunton and Hilton, op. cit., 11.