Over the past 100 years, 19 different individuals have been British prime minister and 10, to date, have produced autobiographies or extensive published diaries that show us what their authors thought important about their achievements. For those interested in housing, these books are salutary reading: housing barely gets a mention.

In his diaries, Harold Macmillan, (prime minister 1957-1963) revealed the process of selecting a housing minister: “Maples will do. He is said to know something about housing”.

Most housing ministers, however ambitious, go no further than senior ministry, but two twentieth century PMs had previously covered the housing brief: Neville Chamberlain (prime minister 1937-1940) did the job while doubling up as minister of health, and Macmillan himself, as minister of state for housing and local government in 1951.

Macmillan’s diaries from his cabinet years have copious coverage of housing policy. Most notable is the annual 300,000 housebuilding target adopted by the Conservatives before their election triumph under Churchill in 1951. Macmillan thought the target (the use of this word rather than pledge was intentional) made Tories feel determined as well as excited. “There will be a lot of criticism from The Economist etc,” he writes. “But I am glad. The only way we got anything done at the Ministry of Supply in the war was by setting what seemed impossible targets”.

Margaret Thatcher (prime minister 1979-1990) did at least have a view that her housing ministers should be clever. In The Downing Street Years (1993), Thatcher states that housing “required the application of a penetrating intellect”.

Thatcher felt that large scale council housing was one of the means by which “socialism was still built into the institutions and mentality of Britain”. She showed a real interest in underlying assumptions and policy detail, such as the net impact of the Right to Buy on demand for housing, the role of the private rented sector in labour mobility,the links between design and crime, and the right of council tenants to set up co-ops. But then, Thatcher also showed a real interest in detail in many policy areas. Education and health get about twice as much discussion as housing, as do coal miners. The word regeneration appears in her book in speech marks, as if unfamiliar to the former PM, despite the active policies of the time.



When John Major (prime minister 1990-1997) became the leader, the falling housing market was part of his “unpromising inheritance”. In his not very excitingly-titled autobiography, John Major, the former PM discusses housing mainly when talking about the management of the economy overall and, like his predecessor, has more to say about education and health than housing per se. There are no references at all to regeneration, despite the fact that the 1990s were again an active time in policy development for those on the ground.

But A journey, the autobiography of Tony Blair (prime minister 1997-2007), says even less about housing than its predecessors. There is no coverage of theory or policy detail. Blair notes housing as a concern of early Fabians and post-war governments. The only policy line to be found are his comments that choices on housing benefit, meant “for the first time, we knocked up against the need for a difficult decision”.

Any other mention of housing seems by-the-by; Blair recalls using the Aylesbury estate in south London as a backdrop for his first major speech as PM; housing proves educational again when a visit to a housing estate revealed that pensioners can be foulmouthed; and it comes up briefly in the context of a tribute to John Prescott, who “played a vital role in housing”.

Finally, Blair and Cherie appear to suddenly notice the house price boom when they consider what to do about their own accommodation if they lost the 2005 election.

Gordon Brown’s (prime minister 2007-2010) autobiography is expected in the autumn, and David Cameron’s (prime minister 2010-2016) is under creation in a £25,000 shepherd’s hut. We wait to see how much space their books will give to housing - and we cannot possibly anticipate what Theresa May (PM 2016 - time of writing) might settle down one day to write about her 2017 housing plans.

Becky Tunstall is Joseph Rowntree professor of housing policy at the University of York and was formerly director of the centre for housing policy.



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