Homes Fit for Heroes (SQA National 5 History): Revision Note

Summary 

“Homes fit for heroes” is the government’s post-First World War promise to build decent, affordable council housing for returning servicemen and their families. It was linked to the 1919 Housing and Town Planning Act, known as the Addison Act, which gave councils funding and a duty to build new homes. In Scotland, this led to the building of council estates in cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.

Post-war housing

• Lloyd George made a post-war promise to provide decent, affordable municipal (council) housing for returning soldiers and their families

• This led to the 1919 Housing and Town Planning Act (“Addison Act”)

• Housing became a national responsibility

• The government funded large council-built estates across the UK, including Scotland

Post-war housing in Scotland

• Scottish councils built planned estates to Tudor Walters' design standards: 

• This led to:

  • Lower-density layouts

  • Gardens

  • Better sanitation

    • Examples include Glasgow’s Mosspark and Stirling’s Riverside, both built under the 1919 Act

• Dundee’s Logie Estate (from 1920) became a flagship Scottish scheme

  • It had generous green space and one of Europe’s earliest district-heating systems, supplying central heating from a communal boilerhouse

• Between the first and second world wars, Scottish local authorities built roughly 240,000 homes

  • This transformed the conditions for working-class families who had lived in overcrowded tenements

• Although Addison subsidies were cut in 1922, building was revived under the 1924 Wheatley Act (sponsored by Glasgow MP John Wheatley)

  • This gave long-term subsidies to councils and increased construction into the late 1920s. 

• Edinburgh opened its first 1919-Act homes in October 1920

• This was expanded through the 1920s (e.g., Northfield/Rosefield schemes), reflecting the city’s rapid municipal house-building after the Great War