In 1957, the then British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan famously asserted that “most of our people have never had it so good;” an oft-quoted claim that very much captured the spirit of the times. In the twenty years or so following the end of the Second World War, the average Briton witnessed a substantial growth in their real earnings, which went up by an estimated 50% from 1951 to 1964, and would continue to climb until the end of the 1960s.
Vittorio Trevitt looks at Britain’s affluent society.
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1959.
The post-war boom in Britain translated into a steady rise in consumer expenditure and widespread penetration of leisurely items such as record players, transistor radios, and TV sets. Although consumer products could not always be acquired or purchased outright, with facilities like hire purchase and mail order catalogues enabling buyers to spread the cost over a period of time, this was definitely something new. For the first time, most Britons came to acquire a level of spending power high enough to obtain a wide range of home comforts; something that ordinary people in previous decades could only dream of. To some extent, it was a sign that the hardships and sacrifices of the war years had given way to a happier, brighter tomorrow.
Britons came to have more time for recreation, helped by an extension of paid leave and reductions in working hours for an increasing percentage of the workforce, with more people embracing the opportunity to take holidays outside their home environment; whether on camping sites or on overseas excursions. Although a visit to the seaside was the most common form of holiday, as it had been for years, more and more people went abroad for their holidays; the number taking this opportunity going up sevenfold during the Fifties and Sixties and the amount spent on such trips more than tripling. Greater wealth also meant that there was greater propensity for households to save, with savings as a percentage of disposable income rising more than twofold over the course of those two decades. Aware of this trend, the government introduced in 1956 a novel savings scheme known as Premium Bonds. More than four in ten Britons would come to own bonds of their own, which was a development arguably attributable to holders being offered the chance to win cash prizes; a popular incentive for purchasing these bonds.
Signs of affluence
Much of the new consumerism was embraced by teenagers, whose personal wealth enabled them to spend their spare cash on items like fashion, personal transport, and records (with 85.5 million LPs sold alone in 1963) and at meeting places like coffee bars, cafés and dance halls, with 5 million people attending the latter weekly by the early Sixties; a 40% increase since 1951. As a sign of the changing times, an increasing proportion participated in sporting activities once solely the preserve of the elite, such as mountain climbing and skiing. Children tasted the fruits of growing consumer prosperity, with yearly expenditure on average children for entertainment reaching just over an estimated (in contemporary money) £415 by 1956, with toys making up a third of this sum. Women were also beneficiaries of the consumer boom, with their daily lives made easier by the spread of appliances like fridges, washing machines and vacuum cleaners, while people in general devoted more time to the comfort and appearance of their residence, such as through gardening and decorating. One symbol of affluence, the automobile, also came within the reach of an increasing number of homes. At the start of the Fifties, less than a fifth of households had a car, but by 1970 the majority had at least one.
The new prosperity was supported by government policy, as exemplified by cuts in taxation, the liberalisation of credit, and (symbolically for a nation that had lived with it for so long) the abolition of rationing. In addition, more opportunities became available for workers to switch to more preferable occupations, while both price rises and the rate of joblessness were kept to a minimum; adding to a sense of general wellbeing. The more prosperous economic climate led to a decline in the reliance on traditional forms of credit like ‘tick’ by corner shops and transactions with pawnshops; institutions that had previously flourished during the Nineteenth Century. In a diary extract from April 1969, the (then) social security minister Richard Crossman reflected on the spread of mass prosperity since the Forties, arguing that Britain had transformed itself “into a place where the majority are well off and the minority are poor.”
Global trend
Britain’s rise to mass affluence was not unique, however. It was, in fact, part of a wider global trend. Across the developed world, nations like Norway, France, and Germany witnessed considerable increases in personal incomes, which was accompanied (like the UK) by a growth in the percentage of households equipped with consumer durables. Developing nations like Venezuela witnessed a growth in the size of their consumerist middle classes, while the far-eastern states of Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong experienced a period of strong economic growth that would earn them the moniker of the “Asian Tigers.” Similar to South Korea’s authoritarian neighbour North Korea and most contemporary African nations like Comoros and the Central African Republic, these four states at mid-century lagged far behind their Western counterparts in terms of social and economic development. But by the end of the Nineties high growth rates, supported by investments in education and industrial development, culminated in a huge improvement in the quality of life of ordinary people, who obtained a degree of material affluence comparable to that long enjoyed by most of their counterparts in the British Isles.
Despite these positive trends, poverty (like today), remained a tragic reality for many. One only needs to see the pictures of slum housing during the Fifties and Sixties, together with stories of low earnings and households lacking the money to afford essentials like new clothes (such as children’s shoes), adequate heating and a good diet, to be aware of this. In 1966, it was estimated that nearly one in five of all householders lived (as noted by one journal) “below any current definition of subsistence.” Also, at the time of Macmillan’s statement, it was hard to describe most Britons as having attained affluence by then, given the fact that earnings for the majority of people did not enable participation in the fruits of what was described as the “Affluent Society.” Regional inequalities (which had long been a negative feature of the British economy) continued to persist, with some parts of the country benefiting more from post-war prosperity than others. Britain also fell behind several Western European nations in terms of individual income growth, with the purchasing power of wages in the European Economic Community (the predecessor of the EU) rising by 35% more than the UK from 1958 to 1969.
It is also worth remembering that living standards today are generally higher. The ownership of televisions and central heating is now practically universal, whereas at the dawn of the Seventies the former was mostly rented by those who had one while the latter was still a luxury, with most households relying on other means at different times of the day like coal fires, paraffin heaters, hot water bottles and multiple blankets to stay warm. Households have also come to enjoy a multitude of new gadgets for education, health and entertainment, including video games, personal computers, and mobile apps, while streaming services have provided people with a far greater choice of programming than ever before. Similarly, the telephone, an item that comes in many forms today, was something that only existed in a minority of homesduring the Sixties, with most people using public phone boxes for making calls.
Conclusion
None of this negates, however, the tremendous rise in living standards following the return of peace in Europe. By the end of the Sixties, most Britons had attained an affluent lifestyle; one that has only continued to improve to the present day with the accumulation of new and better items and overseas travel now the norm rather than the exception as had been the case for the average Briton growing up in the two decades after VE Day. While post-war affluence remained out of reach for millions of Britons, it nevertheless became a positive reality for most. At a time when many are concerned about the current state of the economy, the emergence of the post-war affluent society is a period of British history worth celebrating and remembering.
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