A History of Fox Corner, Pirbright

1918 – 1939

The problems of the immediate post-war period

The inter-war period was very difficult for Britain’s economy.  Unemployment was high, wage growth was low, and the immediate post-war period started with a deep recession.  And governments were unstable - there were 5 general elections in the 9 years between 1922 and 1931.

The Spanish Flu of 1918 killed 200,000 people in Britain.  In those days the government bore little or no responsibility for this sort of problem, and so there were no enforced lockdowns (or national vaccination programmes).  The disease spread in crowded environments, such as troop transports and factories, and as a result most of the victims were of working age.  It would seem that Pirbright’s agricultural basis (albeit much reduced from earlier times) and well-spread housing would have been a bit of a boon at this time.  

But the country’s underlying economic problems were grave:  Wartime industries such as munitions manufacture had stopped, and there was little demand to replace it.  Export markets had been lost, principally to the US and Japan.  As a result, there was an immediate post-war slump, with output levels only returning to 1913 levels in 1925.  Unemployment was running at 11% in 1921.

On top of all this, the level of Britain’s new wartime debts was enormous.  Rising interest rates made things worse.  Between 1913 and 1925, the country’s interest bill had risen 9-fold.  The government responses (to increase taxes and reduce government spending) sound strangely familiar today.  Taxes had risen sharply – doubling in total from 1913.  The highest rate of tax had risen from 8.3% to 52.5%.  Government spending on education and social housing was cut.

There was another problem, which was not recognised at the time.  Britain had re-entered the Gold standard in 1925 at the pre-war rate.  In other words, the exchange rate of the pound was fixed, and fixed at too high a level for Britain to compete internationally.  Exports were accordingly low.

So the country endured high unemployment, high interest costs, high taxes and falling wages, offset to some extent by falling prices.  Unsurprisingly there was general unhappiness about all this.  Governments in the 1920s were unstable, and in 1926 the General Strike took place.  

Ireland had gained its independence from Britain in 1921, but we don’t think that this would have impacted Fox Corner in any way.

Social issues

In terms of housing, in 1918, there was very little private ownership of houses.  Instead, 80% of people were renting their houses from private landlords.  House-building was sluggish immediately after WW1.  It picked up in the mid 20’s for a short while (eg Markham, Elcombe, Derry Cottage, Crimscote, Hillbrow), only to stall again.

In 1918 the eligibility of people to vote was widened markedly.  Men over 21 were allowed to vote whether or not they owned property.  Women were given the vote provided they were aged over 30 and either they, or their husband, meet a property qualification.  These changes increased the size of the electorate by 15 million.  

But the 1929 general election was a landmark, in that women were granted equal voting rights to men for the first time.  Women aged 21-29, who had previously been unable to vote were now enfranchised.  This increased the electorate by a further 5 million.

The period from 1929 onwards

The 1929 Wall Street Crash was very damaging to the US economy, but considerably less so in Britain.  America had grown much more rapidly in the preceding years and so had further to fall than Britain.  In fact the US economy fell by c25%, whereas the reduction in Britain’s economy was only around 7%.  But it did cause most other countries to reduce their imports, which affected Britain’s export trade badly.  By 1931 interest rates had doubled, and a new round of austerity (ie cuts in government spending, including pay cuts in the public sector) was proposed.  Things were bad, so bad that some sections of the navy mutinied (ie refused to follow orders).

The Bank of England was forced to leave the gold standard – something that had hitherto been unthinkable, but to our modern eyes seems obvious.  It had the effect of devaluing sterling by a massive 25% and – more importantly - reducing interest rates by 60%.  This immediately gave a shot in the arm to exporters, to business investment and to housebuilding. As a result, unemployment fell, particularly in the south-east.  

This would have seemed like a breath of fresh air to Fox Corner folks.  Lower interest rates saw a new rush of private sector house-building.  Throughout the country 3 and 4-bedroom semis were being built rapidly, and home ownership rose from 10% in 1918 to nearly 30% in 1939.   At Fox Corner, The Fairway was constructed with just 4 houses.  In addition Braemar and Bakersgate Cottage were built.  Additional social housing was built throughout the country, though not in the Fox Corner area.
But things were not so good in the more depressed areas such as the north of England, where the Jarrow March of 1936 showed the levels of discontent in that area.  
And of course the good times stopped in 1939.

1939 – 1951

Much has been written about WW2, and, as we stated with reference to WW1, we will not repeat or summarise the military aspects.  In terms of damage to local buildings, the Blitz of 1940-41 clearly impacted Britain’s cities in a major way, but Fox Corner and its surroundings were untouched.  The remains of a searchlight encampment between Malthouse Lane and Chapel Lane, and a bomb crater on the heath nearby are the only traces visible today.

Britain’s economy

As in WW1, much of the country’s economy had to be devoted to the war effort.  In order to suppress consumption, the government chose a different strategy to WW1 – taxation.  The standard rate of income tax was doubled (from 25% to 50%), and other tax rises were introduced.  A novel feature was the introduction of PAYE – which of course remains with us today.  Inflation during WW2 was “only” 50% (in WW1 it was 100%).

Another lesson learned from WW1 was in relation to debt.  The government was determined not to repeat the experience after WW1, when interest on debts ran at 5% and caused so much damage to the recovery of the economy.  Lower rates were negotiated.  Lend-Lease in 1941 made a massive difference.  Effectively America supplied much of the country’s food, oil and war equipment for free.

Yet another lesson from WW1 was put into practice:  Planning for the end of the war needed to be done properly, and this was done via the Beveridge Report of 1942.  This report proposed a system of universal benefits, a National Insurance scheme and a health scheme which would be free at the point of delivery.  All this came to pass in the Attlee government post-WW2.  Beveridge also proposed that full employment should be the goal, and this too came to pass (for a while...).  

In fact after the war, unemployment was indeed low, as were interest rates, and this ushered in a benign period for the economy.  The Attlee government nationalised a slew of industries – rail, coal, gas, electricity, iron and steel, for example.  But all this meant that the government now controlled a much larger share of the UK economy (40%) than it had previously – 4 times as much as it had in 1913.  These changes also caused exports to fall dramatically, which caused the government to increase taxes and to devalue sterling.  

The feelgood factor

But on balance people of Fox Corner should have been relatively happy:  Virtually everyone would have had a job and there were greatly enhanced benefits available from the welfare state.  Against these were increased taxes, higher prices of imported goods (eg cigarettes) and continued post-war rationing (which did not finally end until 1954).

1951 – 1959

Stability for a while

The Conservatives came to power in 1951, offering to build more houses and to make people wealthier.  This allowed Macmillan in 1957 to claim famously (and truthfully) that “most of our people had never had it so good”.  

The Suez crisis of 1956, however, was a demonstration that Britain’s standing in the world was falling.  Pressure from the US caused Britain to call a ceasefire and ask the IMF for a loan to prop up sterling.  The old empire had already started to be dismantled (begun by the independence of India in 1947) and the country’s level of imports and exports was in decline.  

The feelgood factor

At home though, most people would have considered themselves much better off than either pre-war or post-war.  Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose by 3.2% on average, whereas today GDP growth of only 2% is regarded as pretty good.  The number of cars on the road doubled during the 1950’s.  Whilst a TV was a rarity at the time of the coronation in 1953, 80% of households owned one by 1960.  People would have also noticed a lower level of inequality between the rich and the poor.  In fact the share of the national income taken home by the top 0.1% of earners had fallen from 11% in 1913 to 2.5% by the end of the 1950’s. So still pretty unequal, but much less so. 

House-building reached new peaks, and low interest rates encourage people to take out mortgages.   Fox Corner certainly felt the effects of the housebuilding boom:  3 houses were built in Berry Lane, 2 along the Ash Road, 2 in Heath Mill Lane, 2 on the main road near The Fox pub, 1 in Malthouse Lane, 4 more houses were built in The Fairway, and Bullswater Common Road was extended from 2 to 18 houses.  That’s a total of 32 houses in the space of 10 years.  What joy for the local residents of the time!  At the end of WW2, home ownership was around 30%, but by the end of the 1950’s it had reached 40%.  

But inflation had started to appear, and it rose above the level of interest rates.  This helped the government in paying off its war debts, but penalised savers.  It was also a portent of what was to follow in the next 20 years.  Another ominous sign was the level of productivity:  By the end of WW2, Britain’s GDP per capita was 30% higher than France’s, but during the 1950’s the gap narrowed fast.

1960 – 1969

Britain’s economy

The dark clouds that had appeared in the 1950’s grew darker in the 1960’s.  Productivity continued to decline relative to other countries (France overtook the UK in the 1960’s in this regard).  This was attributed to 3 principal causes:  Poor management, insufficient investment and overly aggressive trade unions.

The Labour government introduced several reforms in the late 1960’s:  The death penalty was abolished, homosexuality was decriminalised, and abortion legalised. But economically, the country’s economy started to suffer.  Inflation continued to rise.  An artificially high exchange rate yet again made things difficult, and the pound was devalued by 14% in 1967, coupled with a rise in interest rates.

But by the end of the decade both inflation and unemployment were rising, which, according to economic textbooks should not usually happen.  The cause was the power of unionised labour, which was extracting an increasing share of the country’s wealth.

Was there any good news?

House-building had continued apace, albeit not quite at 1950’s levels.  But people continued to buy their homes instead of renting.   At the start of the 1960’s, home ownership was 40%, but by the end of the decade it had reached 50%.  

Builders continued to put up houses at Fox Corner:  5 along the Ash Road, 4 in Berry Lane, 7 on the main road near The Fox pub, 2 in Heath Mill Lane, 4 on the Bagshot Road.  That’s 22 houses, so not so intense a period as the previous decade, but still a big increase on the existing housing stock.  The 50 houses built in the local area in the 1950’s and 1960’s increased the area’s housing by a staggering 60%, which would have altered the look and feel of the area considerably.

One bright spot in the economy was the City of London, which found a niche as the global centre of the new Eurodollar market. Another bright spot was England’s win in the 1966 World Cup.  And British music at this time was not bad, either.  But trouble had started to rise in Northern Ireland.

1970 – 1979

Britain’s economy

The 1970’s marked a nadir of Britain’s economic performance.  Most impactful was the level of inflation, which averaged 12% each year throughout the decade.  Prices nearly trebled between 1970 and 1979.  Strikes were more frequent since they had been in the 1920’s – it was the decade when a 3-day working week was introduced, when “rubbish piled up in the streets” and when we experienced the “winter of discontent” in 1978-79.  Unemployment was also a sorry story – it reached levels not seen since the 1930’s.  Housebuilding was at lower levels than in the 1960’s.  Only 11 houses (including 6 in Hockford Close) were built at Fox Corner in the 1970’s.

The UK had joined the European Community (in 1973), VAT replaced the old purchase taxes, and North Sea Oil started to flow.  The system of fixed exchange rates was abandoned, and sterling duly fell rapidly.  The government stepped in to rescue several “lame duck” companies (notably British Leyland).  In 1976 the government was forced embarrassingly into asking the IMF for a loan.  The conditions of the loan involved tax increases, cuts in public spending, and higher interest rates.

Bright spots

Having said all that, things weren’t all bad.  Women gained the right to equal pay, and there was legislation on racial equality.  Those people with unionised jobs would have found their pay rising faster than prices by nearly 3%.  Car ownership rose from 45% to 70% of households by 1979, and foreign holidays started to become the norm.

 
As inflation started to rise, people started to realise that a combination of medium-low interest rates and inflation would make them richer (on paper).  The “Barber Boom” of 1972 and deregulation of lending resulted in more house purchases and therefore increases in house prices.  As more and more mortgages were taken out, people started to care about interest rates.

Civil strife in Northern Ireland

The troubles in Northern Ireland were at their peak during the 1970’s.  The Guildford Pub bombings in 1974 were uncomfortably close to home.  As far as we know no Fox Corner residents were directly impacted, but it cast a pall over the area for many months.  The following year the “Guildford Four” were convicted and jailed.  Their convictions were overturned in 1990, and the Four were released after 15 years in jail.

The IMF loan was repaid in 1979, but the decade ended on a bleak note:  Inflation was still around 10% and strikes were at recorded levels.

1980 – 1997

All change

The 1979 election of a Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher led to massive economic changes to the UK, not all of them popular.  
Almost immediately the post-war mantra of full employment was dropped in favour of control of inflation.  Another big change was to allow market forces (rather than the state) much more say in driving the economy.  

To start with public spending was squeezed and interest rates increased.  As a result sterling rose, but so did unemployment.  Inflation was reduced dramatically, but unemployment remained high, particularly in the north.  

Tax rates were cut drastically over the period.  The top rate of tax (which was an astonishing 83%) was cut immediately to 60% and then to 40%.  The basic rate was cut from 33% to 24%.  Corporation tax was cut from 52% to 31%.  By today’s standards (when politicians are afraid to raise the basic rate of tax by even 1%), these are dramatic.  They represent the biggest tax-cutting sequence in British history.  However, the rate of VAT was raised from 8% to 15% and then to 17.5%, so the benefits to the ordinary taxpayer of the income tax cuts was reduced somewhat by more tax on consumer spending.  How did the government manage to afford these tax cuts?  In just 3 words:  North Sea Oil.  The taxes on North Sea Oil effectively funded tax cuts which ended up in peoples’ pockets.

Trade Union powers were reduced via a series of Acts of Parliament, which were obviously unpopular amongst unions.  The miners’ strike of 1984-85 was pivotal in determining the future of Trade Union power.  The strike lasted a year, but in the end the union accepted defeat.  Strikes pretty much disappeared from Britain’s economy for nearly 40 years, and the economy benefitted as a result.

A series of privatisations (reversing the post-war nationalisations) followed, which led to better management decisions in the companies affected.  Many of the industries had become bloated, but privatisation allowed managements to improve efficiency.  A lot of redundancies followed (which would have been completely impossible in the old days of state control and strong unions).

The tax cuts and a reduction in interest rates prompted a small boom in the 1980’s, during which house prices rose at 30% per annum.  Not surprisingly, subsequent government tightening soon converted the boom into a recession in the early 1990’s.  Sterling had entered the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), meaning that it was semi-fixed.  But by the early 90’s it was clear to some that sterling was overvalued.  On “Black Wednesday” in 1992, the Bank of England pushed interest rates up to 15% in an effort to support sterling, before admitting defeat and allowing sterling to float (downwards).  Some speculators were able to pocket fortunes by betting against the pound at the time.

The free float of sterling righted the economy quickly.  Interest rates and inflation fell, as did unemployment.  

Housing

Home ownership across the country accelerated in the 1980’s, mainly driven by the 1980 Housing Act, which allowed certain council tenants to buy their homes at a fat discount.  But housebuilding slowed to immediate post-war levels, largely due to stricter application of planning laws allowing local homeowners to block new developments in their neighbourhood.  The Green Belt around London had been introduced in the mid-1950’s to protect green spaces around the city, but was by now slowing new developments.  

Fox Corner was affected by the Green Belt restrictions with at least 2 attempted conversions of green space into housing refused around this time.  We think that just 3 new houses were built on new sites in the Fox Corner area in the 1980s – and none in the 1990’s for that matter.  Whether one thinks the lack of building new houses in the area was a good thing or a bad thing depends of course on one’s perspective.  We should point out that although there were no new houses built, there were lots and lots of house extensions/conversions, and a few cases of buildings being demolished to be replaced by new ones.  So overall the housing stock in the area was modernised, albeit not expanded.

Legacy of the Thatcher years

House prices doubled during the period.  The “Big Bang” of 1986 enabled the City of London to flourish globally.  Activity in the City increased, as did staffing levels and salaries.  This was all good for the south-east.  But it wasn’t at all good for the industrial north, where manufacturing jobs dropped by a third in number.  Inequality across the country rose sharply as well – a small number of people were taking a larger share of the cake.  And the poverty rate rose from under 10% to over 20%.  Harry Enfield’s “Loadsamoney” character seemed to typify the times.

1997 - date

Recent history is fairly well-known, and so we will not write much about it here.  The main economic impacts during the last 20-odd years have been:

 

• The newly-elected Labour government in 1997 generally continued many of the previous government’s policies:  Keeping inflation at bay was a high priority, and – to reinforce this - the Bank of England was given independence to set interest rates.  Laws to restrict trade unions were maintained, privatisations were left alone, and taxes were kept relatively low.

• Spending on health and education rose during the Blair years, only to be restricted after 2010.

• Inequality stopped rising, but did not fall.  Poverty was reduced via a minimum wage, tax credits and generous public sector pay rises (until 2010).

• The financial crisis of 2007/08 was evidenced in the UK by the collapse of Northern Rock.  A deep recession followed, together with rescue packages for other banks.  Interest rates were cut to near zero and the government pumped money into the economy to stimulate demand.  Unemployment rose and sterling fell by 20%.

• The new government of 2010 immediately tightened the economy by increasing VAT to 20% and cutting government and welfare spending.  The country was very slow to recover from recession, but rather surprisingly unemployment started to fall.  But productivity rose only very slowly, seen by some as a fundamental problem for the economy.  And wages, in real terms, fell after 2008, not recovering their pre-2008 level for 10 years.

• The financial sector quickly re-established itself as a source of wealth after 2008.  A new sector – technology – created many new jobs, especially in the sough-east.

• The recent shocks of leaving the EU, the COVID pandemic and the rise in energy prices due to the war in Ukraine have caused much instability, mainly evidenced by further cuts in interest rates (to record lows), a fall in the value of sterling, and a sudden sharp rise in inflation.  Anyone under the age of 40 would not have experienced inflation before.

 

As far as Fox Corner residents are concerned, many of the economic trends of the 1980’s and 1990’s continued.  Some (1 or 2) houses were built on new sites in the area, but Green Belt planning restrictions continued to be applied strictly.  House extensions became even more popular.

A highlight of the era for Fox Corner was the purchase by a local resident of The Fox in 2015.  This injected new life into the pub and the area in general.  Post-COVID there have been other enhancements to the pub, which have further benefitted local residents.

The COVID-related lockdowns forced many people to work from home.  This suited many Fox Corner residents well, and enhanced the sense of community spirit.  The local footpaths on the heaths suddenly became very well-worn, and a few new paths appeared as people discovered short-cuts.  Dog ownership appears to have risen as well, although some of the new dog-owners seem not to understand that dog-mess needs to be taken home and disposed of (and not left on footpaths). 

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