Previous generations built substantial amounts of local authority housing with gardens. We should learn from their example

To see one of the greatest challenges facing the next prime minister, head down the A13 to Dagenham. Just off the dual carriageway lies something remarkable: the world’s first and arguably still largest public housing estate. Spanning 4 sq miles, Becontree comprised 24,000 homes and housed 120,000 people. Begun just over a century ago as part of Lloyd George’s homes for heroes, it is proof of what a battered, heavily indebted government can do – if it has the drive.

The 1920s and 30s saw one of the greatest building booms in British history. This was the era of train stations advancing over Metroland, of the giant Wythenshawe development in Manchester. Cottage estates such as Becontree are now dismissed as humdrum, but to families escaping the poverty-stricken East End, these modest homes would have marked a golden opportunity. And they came with gardens. As the outgoing local MP, Jon Cruddas, observes, if the Americans had built something as grand in scope and scale as Becontree, “you’d never hear the end of it”.