Welfare policy under the Conservatives 1951-1964

Bridgen, Paul and Lowe, R. (1998) Welfare policy under the Conservatives 1951-1964 (Public Record Office Handbooks, 30), London, GB. Public Record Office, 343pp.

Abstract

On re-election to power in 1951, the Conservative Government under Churchill was expected to 'roll back the welfare state'. Until Thorneycroft's dramatic resignation in 1958 that remained a distinct possibility. Thereafter, however, in both Whitehall and Westminster there was a 'great reappraisal' of government policy.

The Conservatives were torn between the conflicting objectives of creating an 'opportunity state' and the promotion of national efficiency. An opportunity state required more selective, generous, treatment of those in need together with reduced taxation and increased incentives to encourage personal initiative and responsibility. National efficiency required the increased provision, amongst other services, of education and housing to ensure a well-trained, mobile workforce.

This conflict of objectives, represented by the One-Nation Group and the Institute of Economic Affairs, raised questions which remain of direct relevance to welfare policy today. How far should government responsibility for individual welfare be discharged through the regulation of the private market, the financing of services or their centralized provision? The answers reached in the 1960s contrast sharply with those of the 1980s and 1990s. Full employment was regarded as sacrosanct. Government promotion of national efficiency was deemed essential to halt Britain's relative decline. To achieve a human society, it was also agreed that

'an increase in public expenditure - and therefore tax - is not necessarily a bad thing in so far as it provides better social benefits for the less fortunate members of the community and alleviates the grossest disparities of wealth.'

This handbook summarizes the development of welfare policies in this period and provides a guide to records available, or about to become available, at the Public Record Office. It is likely to lead to a major reappraisal of pre-Thatcherite Conservatism.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Paul Bridgen

Download statistics