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Owners and Tenants: The Commonwealth Housing Commission and Post‐War Housing, 1943–1949
Author(s) -
Macintyre Stuart
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
australian economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.493
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1467-8446
pISSN - 0004-8992
DOI - 10.1111/aehr.12160
Subject(s) - commonwealth , commission , politics , public administration , world war ii , public housing , context (archaeology) , government (linguistics) , spanish civil war , political science , economics , finance , political economy , economic growth , law , history , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology
This article takes as its point of departure early research by the economic historian David Merrett on owner‐occupiers and tenants. In the light of his subsequent explanation of the growth of sources of finance for house purchasers after 1945, it investigates the post‐war housing program of the Commonwealth government with its emphasis on planning, co‐ordination and public provision. Within the larger context of post‐war reconstruction, it argues that the failure of the public housing program provided the stimulus for the spread of owner‐occupation. The failure is explained as the outcome of economic constraints and the shrinking political capacity of post‐war reconstruction.