The power of initiation: adversary politics and the dismantling of the 1947 system (1951–1959). The power of constraint: the implementation problem and the property boom (1959–1964). The dilemma for the Conservative government: adversary politics versus an interventionist solution.

It was argued that the 1947 Act was an illogical compromise and that due to the power of constraint this legislation generally failed in implementation. In this chapter it is suggested that the period of Conservative government between 1951 and 1964 reveals all the inherent problems for policy-making in Britain of adversarial based politics. In this period Ministers did dominate their officials and they were able to force through legislation (in 1953, 1954 and 1959) which supported landowning and property interests. But this return to a relatively free market in land development caused as many problems as the interventionist Labour approach. The freeing of the market led to a massive boom in land and house prices and the undermining of an effective local authority and public sector role in urban renewal and development. The subsequent attempt by some Ministers and officials to force the government to return to a more interventionist solution after 1962 was, however, to be defeated. The result was prevarication and the loss of office in 1964.

It is impossible to understand the reasons for the Conservative government's decision to return to a relatively free market in land development without an appreciation of the interests which sustain the Conservative Party and the factions which have developed within it as a result.