The Labour government of 1945-1951 built the British
welfare state on the foundations of measures taken by the Liberal government of 1906-1914 and by the wartime coalition government headed by Churchill in 1940-1945. The aim was not only to repair the damage of war, but particularly to prevent a recurrence of forms of social deprivation that had been common before the war. Five areas were of particular concern: poverty, education, health, housing and employment; identified by William Beveridge as "
five giants" on the road of social progress: Want, Ignorance, Disease, Squalor, Idleness. The three men of particular importance for laying the groundwork of the post-war welfare state are the Liberal William Beveridge (for social insurance), the Conservative R. A. Butler(for compulsory secondary education), and the Socialist Aneurin Bevan (for the National Health Service). The Prime Minister whose government implemented their reforms was Clement Attlee.
"Want" was to be tackled on the basis of the recommendations in the "Beveridge Report" (see
here), through a series of acts of parliament, most importantly the Family Allowances Act 1945, National Insurance Act 1946, National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946, Pensions (Increase) Act 1947, and National Assistance Act 1948.
"Ignorance" was to be beaten back by the implementation of the Education Act 1944 (see
here). Not only was education to be free (and compulsory) to the age of 15, schools were also to provide their pupils with free meals, free milk, and free medical services.
"Disease" would be overcome by the creation of a
National Health Service, providing universal medical care free at the point of need. The service began operation in 1948, on the basis of the National Health Service Act 1946.
"Squalor" would be abolished by programmes of slum clearance, the building of council flats and houses in existing towns (see
here), the creation of planned communities (see
here), and the regulation of existing accommodation through such measures as the Landlord and Tenant Act 1949.
"Idleness" was to become a thing of the past thanks to economic planning for full employment. In the words of the aristocratic left-winger Anthony Wedgwood Benn, elected to parliament as a Labour MP in 1950, "There was a feeling that if we can plan for war we can plan for peace."
Whatever government had been formed in 1945 would have had to do something about social issues, and some of the first steps in planning and legislation (commissioning the Beveridge Report, the Butler Education Act) had already been taken by the coalition government. The main reason for the Labour Party's landslide victory in the 1945 election was that the electorate knew that a commitment to tackling such problems was central to Labour's political identity, in a way it was not for the Conservative or Liberal parties.
Important measures were also taken to give ordinary people better access to healthy or cultural free-time activities (see
here).
Less popular than the social legislation, but not very controversial at the time, were the measures to nationalise key parts of the economy, particularly energy, transport, and heavy industry (see
here). What did make the Labour government unpopular, losing them seats in parliament at the 1950 general election and returning the Conservatives to power in the 1951 general election, were the "austerity measures" (see
here) that included micromanaging domestic consumption.
Clement Attlee, Prime Minister 1945-1951, expressed the commitment to building a new society by quoting the poetry of William Blake:
Let us go forward into this fight in the spirit of William Blake:
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall the sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
A useful six-minute overview of the aims and achievements of Attlee's government, from a present-day American perspective, can be found
here.
