TECHNOBUREAUCRACY ANO CITY LIFE owners (who receive tax relief whilst paying off the mortgage) possible. Real earnings have risen considerably during this century but house prices have risen at an even faster rate. Furthermore, the cost of building houses to the standards of any particular era, both for local authorities and for the private purchaser, have ensured a continous reliance on subsidies from the State. State subsidies, rising incomes, increases in house building and the rapid growth of the institutions governing access to housing accommodation have ensured that an increasing number of households bave been able to either purchase tbeir own home or rent housing accomodation from public authorities. Tbe level of private renting has been decreasing throughout tbis century. However, it must be borne in mind that before tbe introduction of rent controls during the First World War the majority of households in Britain could not afford to rent separate housing. Tbe decrease in private rented accommodation is attribuitable, therefore, to its relative lack of attraction as a form of investment. The return on building for sale and conversion for sale is far greater than bulding and conversion for renting. Table 2 (above) shows that only in houses built before 1944 was there any signifìcant level of private renting. Tbe growth of the corporate economy during tbis century has brought about an increase in the number of people in professional/managerial occupations and the number of whitecollar employees in both « public » and « private » institutions. These types of households and a substantial number of that part of tbe working class with tbe appropriate skills for the dominant forms of industriai production have mostly purchased their own homes and for the most part these are homes witb a good standard of repair and possessing all the amenities. Tbese bouseholds bave greatly increased the « demand » for owner-occupied bousing and the « building societies » ( the main institutions involved in the fìnancing of housing purchases) bave been in a position to dictate to a large part of tbese bouseholds precisely wbich houses they can « demand ». Just over one and a half million dwellings in owner occupation are either unfìt or lack basic amenities. This occurs mostly in those parts of cities and towns where, for reasons such as « undesirability », house prices are not very high, or were very low in the past, thus enabling low incarne households to purchase substandard housing accommodation. Table 3 (below) sbows the occurrence of unfìtness and lacking of amenities in dwellings of various tenure categories. 23
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