The topic of housing is central to urban history as well as to social policy. Historians have focussed either on local conditions or national developments, but until first publication of this book in 1980, there had been few systematic attempts to relate local amenities to general policy. The essays provide an interdisciplinary approach to the study of housing, blending original local studies with a novel theoretical perspective on the development of social policy. Covering a wide geographical area, the book focusses on housing conditions within the locality surveyed and the intervention of both local and central government in the provision of working-class dwellings. The studies relate specific cases to general problems of economic and social development and changes in class relations.