Living Standards 1918/79 - The Changing Quality of Life 1918 - 1979

Living Standards – Measured by factors that contribute to a person’s physical well-being e.g. Public health, diet, housing, social capital and wages

Boom, crisis, recovery and war -1918-1945

Real Income

·       Real Income – This takes into account the effect of inflation on what can be bought with money earned at a particular time

·       Severe Recession in 1921 - Wages for the poorest fell until 1934

·       However living standards still improved become:

o   Prices, especially food prices, fell faster than wages

o   An increase in the use of contraception meant that families shrank (average number of children 2.19 in 1920 compared with 4.6 in 1880) so wages were shared between fewer people and so went further

·       Real cost of living fell by 1/3 between 1920 and 1938

·       Average wages doubled during WW2

Housing

·       4 million homes were built during the inter-war period (Conservative Housing Acts of 1923/24 and Labour Housing Act 1930)

·       1914 10% of the population were homeowners, by 1938 it was 32%

·       Effects of the Blitz in WW2 (3.5 million homes bombed, 60 million changes of address)

·       1944 Housing and Temporary Accommodation Act

·       After WW2 pre-fabricated homes were built

·       1946 New Towns Act

Health and Diet

·       700 000 died and 1.7 million injured in war - by 1921 over 1 million men were receiving disability pensions

·       WW1 40% of men exposed as unfit for combat

·       Amount spent on alcohol decreased throughout the interwar years (due to pub restrictions during WW1 and rise of other entertainment)

·       Diets improved due to rationing + 1914 Education (Provision of Meals) Act which provided meals to poor school children

·       By 1922 infant mortality had halved from 1900. More people were living beyond 65 (although geriatric care was poor). However this was dependant on where you lived e.g. there were fewer live births in Wales than in parts of London

·       1930s Hunger Marches

·       However still large regional variations in health and diet - infant mortality 5.17 death per 1000 in Wales but 0.86 per 1000 in Kensington. Still no national healthcare, hospital care a ‘postcode lottery’

·       Families who looked after children during WW2 were often shocked by the diet of the poor. The poor preferred to eat fish and chips or biscuits for dinner rather than vegetables

·       Impact of rationing in WW2 –  government price controls meant foots became more affordable, working class had a healthier diet. Ministry of Food’s ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign encouraged people to grow their own vegetables

·       450 000 Britons killed in WW2

·       Rationing ended in 1954

Regional Variations

·       Industrial areas like South Wales fared worse than areas with a large service sector or newer industries (like London)

·       Traditional industries heavily reliant on exports - suffered due to loss of trade post WW1, return to Gold Standard, competition from Germany and US (new machinery!) and the Depression

·       Rise of long-term structural unemployment - in 1929 5% of people out of work had been jobless for a year, by 1932 this had risen to 16.4%

·       In 1944 Beveridge calculated that 85% of all long-term unemployment was in South Wales, Scotland and North of England

·       1936 Jarrow MArch

·       Regional variations in the ‘means test’ to determine the amount of dole money persisted

Consumption

·       Regional variations reflected in consumption

·       Car ownership was more common in the South-East

·       1920 730,000 people had electricity. In 1938 this rose to 9 million. By 1961 96% of homes had electricity

·       1926 Electricity Supply Act which created a Central Electricity Board and a National Grid.

·       1938 – people in the South-East used 861 Kilowatts per hour, in the North people used 386 Kilowatts per hour. In the North it was mainly used for lighting, in the South it was also used for labour-saving devices

·       1920s/30s electric fridges, cookers, heaters and washing machines were a preserved of the middle class - still no mass consumer market

·       WW2 austerity- clothing rationing levelled fashion across classes, life became more drab, in 1946 roughly ¼ of consumer expenditure was controlled by rationing - this rose to 30% in 1948

Growth of a consumer society 1951-1979

Incomes

·       Historian Eric Hobsbawn -1950s-70s the ‘golden era’ of western capitalism

·       Real disposable income rose 30% in 50s, 22% in 60s and 30% in 70s

·       People spent more of housing, cars, durables and entertainment

·       1950-1970: Home ownership increased from 29% to over 50%, car ownership rose from 16% to 52%

·       Harold Macmillan - ‘Most of our people have never had it so good.’

·       By 1965, the necessities of food + clothing absorbed only 30% of consumer spending.

Growth of consumerism

·       The number of homes with Central Heating rose from 5% in 1960 to 50% in 1977.

·       Growth in TV ownership. Nearly every household had one by 1970

·       Between 1947 and 1970 the amount of money spent on advertising tripled

·       1957 Old Spice was advertised – more men used deodorant. By 1969 over half of all men and women used deodorant, perfumes or aftershave

·       By the 1960s new fashions like ‘The Look’ meant it was hard to tell which class a woman belonged to by her clothes. Twiggy said that clothing brand Bibi was ‘for anyone.’

·       1947 – first supermarket (in St Albans) -short lived

·       1950 – Sainsbury’s opens in Croydon, marks the permanent start of the supermarket era.

·       Supermarkets did well due to the Retail Price Maintenance being rolled back, they could slash prices due to their size - by 1971 there were 3,500 in Britain. This led to 2/3 of specialist grocer shops closing

·       1957 Consumer Association founded and launched Which? Magazine

·       1972 Ministry for Consumer Affairs set up to protect consumers

Credit

·       1974 Consumer Credit Act clarified the rights and responsibilities of lenders and borrowers, paved the way for an explosion of borrowing in the 80s and 90s

·       Credit cards began being used in 1966