Time to build houses for the people

Post-war house building achieved its peak not under Clement Attlee, but Winston Churchill.

In fact housing was a very big issue in the 1951 election with the Conservatives promising to build 300,000 homes a year, a target which some regarded as unachievable.

To deliver his manifesto promise, Churchill turned to none other than Harold Macmillan.  Macmillan didn’t really fancy the job of housing minister but as he made clear in his diaries Churchill wasn’t taking no for an answer: “it will make or mar your career,” he told him.