The Great Estate: The Rise and Fall of the Council House(2011)

Author Michael Collins charts the rise and fall of the council house, arguing that council housing had lost its way by the 1980s - before the big sell-off under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government - and that ultimately it was not the architects but the people themselves that contributed to its decline. Yet in the 21st century, council housing remains on the agenda, and is currently in the throes of another chapter under the coalition government.