Household expenditure, consumption, and living standards in Britain, 1900-1939

James Walker  and I examine changes in household consumption and living standards for working-class and lower middle-class households in Britain prior to the Second World War, using the archives of early household expenditure surveys, together with autobiographical and other evidence.
 

Themes

The first four decades of the twentieth century witnessed major changes in household consumption and living standards. Working and lower-middle class families experienced rising real incomes and were able to buy items such as new suites of furniture, better clothing, radios, and - in some cases - even new suburban semi-detached houses. Access to such items was boosted by an expansion in consumer credit and encouraged by aggressive marketing campaigns by manufacturers and retailers of expensive household goods.
However, despite rising incomes, most households still experienced considerable difficulties in making ends meet. Increased expenditure on new consumer durables and better housing often entailed cut-backs in spending on items such as food, or, in the longer-term, having fewer children so as to both meet new consumption standards and provide a better future for their existing children.

This project examines these trends by analysis of the original returns from early household expenditure surveys, including the 1937/38 Ministry of Labour Working-class household expenditure survey and surveys of the household budgets of railway clerks, conducted in around 1911 by the main railway clerks' union - the Railway Clerks Association. Such evidence is supplemented by other sources - including autobiographical evidence for people who married and set up home during this period.
 

Research papers currently in progress

• `That's the way the money goes: Working class household expenditure and income smoothing in interwar Britain' (Peter Scott and James Walker)
• `Household entertainment expenditure in 1930s Britain' (Peter Scott, James Walker, and Peter Miskell).
• `Power to the People: Working-class demand for household power in 1930s Britain' (Peter Scott and James Walker)
• `Demonstrating distinction at "the lowest edge of the black-coated class": the family expenditures of Edwardian railway clerks' (Peter Scott and James Walker).