British Housebuilders: History & Analysis

Description

British Housebuilders is the first comprehensive account of the corporate history of the twentieth-century speculative housebuilding industry - the firms that `supplied` those houses and the entrepreneurs who created those firms.The transition from the local housebuilders of the 1930s, through the regional diversification of the 1960s, to the national housebuilders of today is charted via a series of industry league tables. The rationale for the growth in national firms is analysed. The conventional explanation of economies of scale is rejected: instead, the stock market is found to play a key role both in facilitating acquisitions and in demanding growth from its constituent companies.The supply-side analysis also addresses the frequent corporate failures: succession issues, lack of focus and the 1974 and 1990 recessions have played their part in equal measure.British Housebuilders provides the first opportunity to review the evidence drawn from a century of speculative housebuilding; it is only with this historical perspective that sound judgements can be made on the corporate role in housebuilding.Content: Chapter 1 Introduction (pages 1–31): Chapter 2 The Pre?war Housebuilders (pages 34–54): Chapter 3 War and Building Controls (pages 55–61): Chapter 4 The Post?war Housing Boom 1955–1973 (pages 66–80): Chapter 5 Recession and Recovery, 1973–1988 (pages 82–91): Chapter 6 Recession and Recovery Again, 1989–2004 (pages 93–104): Chapter 7 Market Share Through the Century: A Summary (pages 105–111): Chapter 8 Who Were the Builders? (pages 113–131): Chapter 9 The Rationale for Growth: The Economies that Accrue to Size (pages 136–167): Chapter 10 The Decline of the Private Housebuilder: A Chronology (pages 195–243): Chapter 11 Decline: An Overview (pages 195–243): Chapter 12 An Alternative Explanation of Growth (pages 249–259):