British Housebuilders. History and analysis

Notes:

Scholarly account. Based on doctoral thesis. Provides a 'supply side analysis of the housebuilding industry - who the housebuilders were and how their behaviour has affected the corporate structure of the industry'. Deals with the firms that supplied the houses and the entrepreneurs who crated the firms. Deals especially with the transition from local housebuilders of the 1930s, through regional diversification of the 1960s, to the creation of national units by the 1980s. Also analyses rationale for growth in national firms and addresses the frequent rate of corporate failure. In two parts: 'The supply side' and 'Analysis'. Sections include: 'Prewar [ie 1939] housebuilders'; 'War and building controls'; 'The postwar building boom, 1955-73'; 'Recession and recovery, 1973-88'; 'Recession and recovery again, 1989-2004'; 'Market share through a century. A summary'; 'Who were the builders?'; 'Rationale for growth - the economies that accrue to size'; 'Decline of the private housebuilder - a chronology'; 'Decline - an overview'; 'An alternative explanation for growth'. Includes much business specific information - eg Barratt Developments; Bovis; Bellway; Beazer; Bryant; Costain; Davis Estates; Fairview; Ideal Homes'; John Laing; William Leech; McLean Homes; Persimmon Homes; Tarmac; Redrow; Wates; Wilson Connolly; Wimpey; David Wilson