Mr Boughton is an erudite guide through this story. He meets Inside Housing on the Pepys Estate (one of the 100) in Lewisham, south-east London, and takes us on a fascinating walking tour of a place that is a story of success and failure.

Many of the sector’s current leaders began their journeys in council teams One hundred years of council housing has delivered a generation of sector leaders as well as millions of council homes, writes Mervyn Jones Although the abandonment of subsidy in 1921 and a change of government the following year curtailed the immediate growth of council-built housing, the seed had been sown.At the same time that I have been reading John Boughton’s new book, A History of Council Housing in 100 Estates, I have been visiting estates across the Diocese marvelling at the variety of architectural style and location of our Southwark estates. A landlord's obligations are set out in several pieces of legislation, including the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which applies to tenancies entered into after 1961. In summary, section 11 provides that a landlord shall: The project has engaged local people as well as archivists, and has inspired me to research the path towards the Act that enabled new council housing at a national and local level. In my second blog I will describe how the students used the resources here at The National Archives and Wandsworth Heritage Service, and discuss learning outcomes. But first I will explain how the Act came to pass. The 1919 Housing Acts Stevenage: home of the new town revolution Stevenage was the first of the post-war ‘new towns’. Gavriel Hollander visits the town to see how it has changed. The Addison Act - celebrating 100 years of council housing This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Addison Act – which paved the way for council housebuilding on a large scale. Inside Housing has a whole month of special activity planned and we want to hear your stories

The 1980 Housing Act gave secure tenants of three years or more in England and Wales the right to buy their council house or flat with a large discount on the market value. The act also provided for 100% mortgages.

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Among many striking things which come across from reading it is a reminder that the debates in the sector today are often an echo of much older conversations. The conversation about whether modern social (affordable) rents are truly affordable sometimes feels like a very contemporary concern. In fact, the trade-off between cost of construction and the ultimate rent charged is one that has plagued the sector from the beginning. There was a strong moral aspect to their endeavours, and in names such as The Society for the Improving the Condition of the Labouring Class. The improving was not to be simply that of physical circumstances. Octavia Hill was one of those at the forefront, and some architects such as Henry Roberts (Streatham Street housing, unfortunately not illustrated here) provided excellent and innovative designs, though the general standard was pretty bleak.

Most social housing in England now belongs to housing associations - 2.5 million as opposed to 1.6 million council homes. The Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 led to the building of prefab bungalows with a design life of ten years. Innovative steel-framed properties were also tried in an attempt to speed up construction. A number survive well into the 21st century, a testament to the durability of a series of housing designs and construction methods only envisaged to last 10 years.Various phases of regeneration have seen its walkways and elevated shopping centre demolished and some of its social rent housing sold off to promote a more mixed and more affluent community." Thatcher's legacy: a brief history of the Right to Buy An engine for social change or a handbrake on council development? We look at why the Right to Buy is as divisive as ever #ukhousing