Leonard Vincent about the beginnings of Stevenage

Because of the war both skills and materials were scarce when the New Town Act was approved, and this caused a long delay in the outset of the project.

Stevenage Museum

How nothing happened from 1946 to 1949

The project was approved in 1946, but until 1949 the Government didn’t have the necessary resources.

“…but in the first, though the New Towns were designated in 1946, nothing really happened until 1949/50, before then the Government and the usual Governments do clamped down on expenditure, an enormous shortage of materials and things.”

Leonard Vincent

Plenty of labour, shortage of craft

The effects of war on the construction industry: manpower was available, but those people lacked building skills.

“There was no shortage of labour of course, there was plenty of labour going, a lot of it was not as good as it might be mainly because of the war period that destroyed the old craft attitude of the building industry to a large extent.”

Leonard Vincent