Friends in high places: government-industry relations in public sector house-building during Britain’s tower block era

Scott, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1230-9040 (2020) Friends in high places: government-industry relations in public sector house-building during Britain’s tower block era. Business History, 62 (4). pp. 545-565. ISSN 1743-7938 doi: 10.1080/00076791.2018.1452913

Abstract/Summary

Britain’s high-rise public housing era is widely seen as a serious social policy mistake. We show that the problems associated with this housing format were known to policy makers at an early stage, while tower blocks were also substantially more expensive, both from the perspective of central, and local, government. Conservatives governments championed high-rise mainly owing to the political advantages of urban containment. Major building contractors then used their close links with (central and local) policy-makers to aggressively lobby for high-rise ʽsystem building,’ as their expertise in this field enabled them to dominate the sector and exclude local competitors.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/76444
Identification Number/DOI	10.1080/00076791.2018.1452913
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > International Business and Strategy
Uncontrolled Keywords	Business, Management and Accounting (miscellaneous), Business and International Management, History
Publisher	Taylor & Francis
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