The principal focus of this book is on contemporary issues relating to large post-war estates. But before considering these issues we have to consider the question, “How did we get to where we are today?”. The social and economic circumstances of the estates reflect changes over several decades. The objective of this chapter is to identify the underlying factors that contribute to the nature of these estates and their problems, which affect the governance and policy issues they present.

Large housing estates: origins, past and present

Predecessors to post-war housing

The origins of large housing estates in Europe lie within the poor housing conditions experienced by the working classes in certain European countries during the late 19th century. It is important to note that not all European countries were highly urbanised at this time. However, in those countries where industrialisation had been accompanied by rapid urbanisation (for example, the UK, Germany), high levels of (unregulated) new house building were unable to meet the demand for housing in the rapidly developing towns and cities. Consequently, problems such as disease, poor air quality, and overcrowding were created, which placed housing issues firmly on the political and social reform agenda (Engels, 1872; Tarn-Lund, 1971; Reulecke and Huck, 1981). In some cases, violent riots in Europe’s urban areas reinforced the argument that change in the quality and quantity of mass housing was necessary.

Four strands of housing reform emerged before 1914:

• • interventions to benefit public health through the regulation of water and sewerage systems and the clearance of unhealthy housing;

• • the development of the garden cities, which provided an ‘anti-urban’ model, primarily for the (lower) middle and upper working classes;

• • the development, in Austria and Germany, by builders from a philanthropic or a labour-movement-related background, of ‘reform blocks’. These blocks were built for the working classes and provided a layout with open gardens, well-designed and equipped flats, and services for the residents;

• • the development of quality housing estates directly related to mining or factory complexes such as the continental Werksiedlungen (Lepper, 1989), which provided a mix between the ambience of the garden cities and the reform blocks and the well-designed urban villages in the UK such as Bournville, built for workers at the Cadbury factory in Birmingham (Groves et al, 2003).