Clement Attlee and The Post-war Economic and Social Challenges

Attlee’s government was considered an era of radicalism. Clement Attlee became Prime Minister in 1945, after being the leader of the Labour party for ten years. He was also, informally until 1942, the deputy Prime Minister to Churchill. He was voted in as Prime Minister after World War 2 ended, when the country needed major improvements. During the six years Attlee was Prime Minister, he brought a vigorous programme of reform to Great Britain.

One of Attlee’s most significant policies was to nationalise some of the big businesses and industries in Britain. These included the Bank of England, coal mines, electricity and gas, railways and British Airways. By allowing the government to take charge of these businesses, this generated significant opposition from some of the capitalist business interests. However, nationalisation was popular among trade unions and Labour’s working class supporters. The outcome of this policy showed that about 20% of Britain’s economy had been nationalised.

During Attlee’s reign as Prime Minister, the National Health Service was introduced to Britain, between 1946 and 1948. This enabled everyone in the country to have the right to be treated with free health care. Attlee took pride in the NHS as he wanted a healthy nation as well as eradicating poverty in the country. The introduction of the NHS was seen by many as the flagship of Attlee’s government. As well as the NHS, National Insurance was also introduced, as part of Attlee’s comprehensive welfare state policy. However, this only looked after people that were employed, so it could have encouraged people to try to get a job.

Another important policy that was down to Attlee was a huge building program. Between 1945 and 1947, 300,000 new houses had been built in an attempt to house everyone as well as eradicating overcrowding in houses. This was also part of Attlee’s comprehensive welfare state policy. By 1951, over a million new houses had been built which was a great achievement.

Attlee had always supported giving Britain’s colonies their own leadership and freedom. Once he was Prime Minister, he decided that reducing Britain’s dominance in the Commonwealth was an essential part of post-war recovery. Also, the level of Indian demands for self-rule could no longer be denied. Therefore, in 1947, Britain granted independence to India.

Attlee’s major downfall came when Britain needed to borrow money from America. By 1945, conflict had cost Britain one quarter of it’s national wealth. Attlee trusted an economist, John Maynard Keynes, to negotiate a deal on generous terms with America. This ‘dream’ deal was not agreed, but instead Britain borrowed massive amounts of money on annual interest, as well as very harsh terms-insisted on by the Americans. This led to Britain to be in huge debt to America.

After this, Attlee and Labour’s popularity decreased heavily. This was shown in the 1950 election- Labour still won, but with a reduced majority. Then in 1951, another election was held, in which Labour and Attlee lost and were out of power. I feel that Attlee’s government dealt with the post-war problems well and positively changed Britain. If it wasn’t for Attlee bringing huge debt to Britain, then his leadership would have been looked upon as even more successful in assisting Britain to recover from war.