The 1919 Act followed on from the Town Planning Act 1909 and the 1917 Tudor Walters Committee Report into the provision of housing in the United Kingdom; the latter commissioned by Parliament with a view to postwar construction. In part, it was a response to the shocking lack of fitness amongst many recruits during World War I, which was attributed to poor living conditions. That belief summed up in a housing poster of the period that "you cannot expect to get an A1 population out of C3 homes",[5] in reference to the period's military fitness classifications.
Terms
It provided subsidies to local authorities and aimed to help finance the construction of 500,000 houses within three years.
Not all of the funding was ultimately made available, as the subsidies were scrapped in 1922 under the Geddes Axe austerity programme. Only 213,000 homes were built under the 1919 Act scheme.[7][8][9]