Historically, building leases have been responsible for some very enlightened estate management and town planning. They have also been abused by less responsible landlords and have caused much hardship among tenants. This article records some of the good and bad achievements of ground landlords and then attempts to analyse which elements of the leasehold relationship are worthy of preservation. Some ways are then suggested in which the balance of rights and obligations and the nature of the tenant's interest might be amended to make leaseholds more acceptable to tenants.
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References
1.
See for example: Minutes of Evidence of the Select Committee on Town Holdings, 1888; Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, 1884-5.
2.
H.J. Dyos, Victorian Suburb: a study of the growth of Camberwell, Leicester, 1961.
3.
Select Committee on Town Holdings, 1888.
4.
C.W. Chalklin , 'Urban Housing Estates in the Eighteenth Century', UrbanStudies, Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1968.
5.
H.J. Dyos, supra.
6.
Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes, 1884 -5.
7.
See for example: Bournville Village Trust, 1900-1955, Bournville Village Trust Publication , 1955.
8.
D.J. Olsen, Town Planning in London: the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, New Haven, 1964.
9.
D.J. Olsen, supra.
10.
D.J. Olsen, supra.
11.
H. J. Dyos, supra.
12.
Bournville Village Trust, 1900-1955, supra.
13.
D.J. Olsen, supra.
14.
Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes1884-5.
15.
See for example the contrast drawn between two estates in Camberwell by H.J. Dyos, supra, pp. 101-4.
16.
D.J. Olsen, supra.
17.
D.A. Reeder , 'The Politics of Urban Leaseholds in late Victorian London', International Review of Social History, Vol. VI, 1961.
18.
See for example A. Skeffington, 'Leasehold Reform', Fabian Research Series180, 1956 .
19.
Report of the Committee on Estate Development and Management in War-damaged Areas, H.M.S.O., 1947 , Cmd. 7982; Second Interim Report of the Committee on New Towns , H.M.S.O., 1946, Cmd. 6794; H.W. Wells, 'Planning by Lease Control', Town & Country Planning Summer School, 1944.
20.
Bournville Village Trust, 1900-1955, supra. Information was also obtained direct from the Estate Offices of Bournville Village and the Calthorpe Estate in Birmingham.
