Liberal reforms
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
after the 1906 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1906
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1906*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
. It has been argued that this legislation shows the emergence of the modern welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
in the UK. They shifted their outlook from a laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
system to a more collectivist approach. The reforms demonstrate the split that had emerged within liberalism, between progressive liberalism and classical liberalism
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
, and a change in direction for the Liberal Party from liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, in general, to a party of progressive liberalism and larger, more active government.
The Liberal welfare reforms took place after a Royal Commission
Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09
The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09 was a body set up by the British Parliament in order to investigate how the Poor Law system should be changed...
on how the country's Poor Law
Poor Law
The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws before being codified in 1587–98...
provision should be altered. Two contrasting reports known as the Majority Report
Majority report (Poor Law)
The Majority report was a report published by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws published in 1909. The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws was a group set up to work out the best way to relieve the poor...
and the Minority Report
Minority report (Poor Law)
The Minority report was one of two reports published by the Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws 1905-09, the other being Majority report. Headed by the Fabian socialist Beatrice Webb, it called for a system that was radically different from the existing Poor Law...
were published, and as they differed so greatly the Liberals were able to ignore both reports and implement their own reforms. By implementing the reforms outside of the Poor Law the stigma attached to claiming relief was also removed.
During the 1906 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1906
-Seats summary:-See also:*MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1906*The Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885-1918-External links:***-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987**...
campaign neither of the two major parties made poverty an important election issue and no promises were made to introduce welfare reforms. Despite this, the Liberals led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman GCB was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served as Secretary of State for War twice, in the Cabinets of Gladstone and Rosebery...
won a landslide victory and began introducing wide ranging reforms as soon as they took office.
Causes
- The split within liberalism led to the rise of progressive liberalism within the Liberal Party, and the de-emphasis of what some refer to as "classical" liberalism, which had allegedly been the dominant ideology within the party. Historically, liberalism emphasized a system of government to protect liberty; historically, liberalism viewed the threat to liberty as mainly coming from the force and coercion of the state. The split within liberalism occurred when many liberals viewed threats to individual liberty arising from sources other than the state, such as from the concentration of money, the amalgamation of power, or in the destitution of the poor, the sick, or the elderly. Progressive liberalism was an ideology which promoted an active government as the best guardian of liberty – both theoretical liberty and effective liberty – through government aid. Several 'New Liberals' such as David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill replaced the earlier ideology apparent in figures such as William Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
(see Gladstonian LiberalismGladstonian LiberalismGladstonian Liberalism is a political doctrine named after the British Victorian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstonian Liberalism consisted of limited government expenditure and low taxation whilst making sure government had balanced budgets...
) who felt that people should be more trusting of their fate to market forces and the "invisible hand" of capitalism. - The social investigations of Charles BoothCharles Booth (philanthropist)Charles Booth was an English philanthropist and social researcher. He is most famed for his innovative work on documenting working class life in London at the end of the 19th century, work that along with that of Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree influenced government intervention against poverty in the...
and Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree. These investigations helped change attitudes towards the causes of poverty. Booth carried out extensive research into the poor living conditions and poverty experienced in London, whilst Rowntree made a social investigation into the problems experienced by the poor in York. These investigations provided statistical evidence for genuine moral concern for the poor. They stated that illness and old age were greater causes of poverty than idleness and moral weakness. Rowntree was himself a close friend of Lloyd George, after the two met in 1907 after Lloyd George became President of the Board of Trade. Rowntree himself hoped that his proposals could influence Liberal policy. - The threat from the emerging Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. Socialism was an increasingly popular ideology. If the Liberals did not put forward popular policies, they were in danger of losing votes and handing the House of Commons to the Conservatives. - The trade union movement was growing especially during the period 1910–1912. Unless living conditions were improved, there were genuine concerns that workers may turn to communism or rebellion.
- The fact that the Labour Party allowed the Liberals to return to form a government, as they held the seats needed for a majority after the 1910 General Election, meant that further legislation was passed, since the Labour Party, which was socially democraticSocial democracySocial democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, was allied to workers through their affiliated trade unions. - The condition of soldiers during the Boer WarSecond Boer WarThe Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
was considered unacceptable. The British government had trouble enlisting enough able-bodied recruits to the British army. - Germany and the USA were overtaking Britain as economic powers – the success of social legislation in Bismarck's Germany made leading Liberals in the UK such as David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
and Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
want to put forward similar legislation. - The emergence of public works schemes set up to improve living conditions which were often run by the Liberals raised the possibility that such schemes could occur on a national scale.
Previous social legislation
The Conservative government in office before the Liberals came to power passed the Unemployed Workman's Act in 1905 and the Employment of Children Act in 1905. Slum housing was also cleared for new houses to be built. Much of this legislation was left for local authorities to implement – their attitudes affected whether legislation was fully implemented.Children
In 1906, children were provided with free school mealFree school meal
A Free School Meal, provided to a child or young person during a school break, is paid for by Government. For a child to qualify for a Free School Meal, their parent or carer must be receiving particular qualifying benefits as stated by Government...
s. However, many local councils ignored this system, as it was not compulsory for them to provide the free meals and the cost to the council was far greater than was subsidised for. The provision of free school meals was made compulsory in 1914, in which year fourteen million meals per school day were served (compared with nine million per school day in 1910), most of which were free. In 1912, half of all councils in Britain were offering the scheme. The government realised that they could not fight the First World War with a force of malnourished and ill children, when they had to conscript. Also, following an unfavourable report by the Board of Education's inspectors on infant education in 1906, school provision for children under five was restricted (previously, the normal age for the entry of working-class children into full-time education had been three). In 1907, the Notification of Births Act came into being, which sought to quantify and analyse the causes of (and ultimately further reduce) infant mortality.
In 1907, the number of free scholarship places in secondary schools was increased. If working-class pupils passed a scholarship examination, then their fees would be paid for them by the Local Education Authority (LEA). A quarter of places in most secondary schools would be reserved for scholarship pupils. Bright working-class children were therefore provided with the opportunity to climb "the educational ladder", while for those pupils who failed the scholarship exam, some LEAs had "Central Schools" which provided a practically based curriculum for children between the ages of 11 and 15.
The 1907 Probation Act established a probation service to provide supervision within the community for young offenders as an alternative to prison. In 1908, the Children and Young Person's Act formed part of the Children's Charter which imposed punishments for those neglecting children. It became illegal to sell children tobacco, alcohol and fireworks or to send children begging. Juvenile courts and borstals were created instead for young offenders so they did not have to stand in adult courts and go to adult prisons for most offences.
Medical inspections began in 1907 but many poor families could not afford the cost of the doctors fees to get treated; it was not until 1912 that medical treatment was provided. However, education authorities largely ignored the provision of free medical treatment for school children. A tax allowance for children was introduced in 1909 to help families on low incomes. This allowance of £10 a year was introduced for every child below the age of 16 in the case of income tax payers whose income fell below £500 per annum (this rebate was later doubled in the 1914 budget).
A year later, the Education (Choice of Employment) Bill of 1910 was passed, enabling local authorities to provide vocational guidance for school-leavers, with the Board of Education providing grants to authorities from 1911 onwards to carry out this purpose. By mid-1912, however, only forty-one local authorities had responded.
Elderly
In 1908, pensions were introduced for those over 70. They were paid 5s a week (estimates of the value of this in 2010 are difficult to ascertain, the average wage of a labourer being around 30s. a week ) to single men and women and 7s 6d to married couples, on a sliding scale. The single persons rate applied to those over 70 earning under £21; this sum could be collected at the local post office. The pensions were means-tested (to receive the pension, one had to earn less than £31.50 annually) and intentionally low to encourage workers to make their own provisions for the future. An example of how low this amount was is that if an elderly person was to live on their pension alone they fell below Rowntree's poverty line. It was a struggle for elderly persons to claim their pension as they had to prove that they were not drunkards, for example. Also, to qualify for the pension scheme, they had to have worked to their "full potential". There were no fixed guidelines as to what "full potential" was, so people who had been briefly unemployed could be penalised. To be eligible, they also had to have lived in the country for 20 years or more, so many immigrants could not claim their pensions, or British people who had worked abroad and returned to Britain to retire. The Labour Party argued that most people would not live until their 70th birthday because in the worst industrial slums the average life expectancy was in the mid-40s.Workers
In 1906, the 1901 Factory Act was amended to include laundries, and in 1909, labour exchanges were set up in order to help unemployed people find work, by providing centres where a large number of employers and the unemployed could post jobs and apply for them respectively. By February 1910, eighty-three labour exchanges were open, and proved to invaluable in helping people find employment). In 1913 these labour exchanges were putting around 3000 people into a job each day. Another measure taken was the 1909 Development Fund, which was an attempt made by the Liberals to provide work in times of Depression. This Fund was devoted to increasing employment opportunities through measures such as afforestation and the provision of smallholdings in the countryside.In 1908, a ship-building programme for that year was accelerated to boost labour demand, while loans sanctioned by the Local Government Board since the early summer for ‘works of public utility’ (such as street improvements, waterworks, and sewerage) had exceeded £700,000. Spending on relief work and public works was also significantly increased to alleviate unemployment, while the Local Government Board regulations governing the type of work provided by distress committees and local authorities, together with the eligibility of applicants for relief, were both relaxed.
The Mines Accidents (Rescue and Aid) Act 1910 required the maintenance and provision of rescue apparatus, the formation and training of rescue brigades, the provision and maintenance of ambulance appliances, and the training of first aid men at mines. An order of 1912 required the organisation of rescue brigades and the provision of suits of breathing apparatus at coal mines, or that mines could call on the services of a Central Rescue Station to be provided with such apparatus.
The National Insurance Act (Part I) passed in 1911 gave workers the right to sick pay of 9s a week and free medical treatment in return for a payment for 4d (the payments would last for 26 weeks of sickness). The medical treatment was provided by doctors who belonged to a "panel" in each district. Doctors received a fee from the insurance fund for each "panel" patient they treated. The National Insurance Act (Part II) gave workers the right to unemployment pay of 7s 6d a week for 15 weeks in return for a payment of 2½d a week.
Health Insurance
Under Part 1 of the National Insurance Act 1911 compulsory health insurance was provided for workers earning less than £160 per year. The scheme was contributed to by the worker who contributed fourpence, the employer who contributed threepence and the government who contributed twopence. The scheme provided sickness benefit entitlement of nine shillings (£36), free medical treatment and maternity benefit of 30 shillings (£120). An estimated 13 million workers came to be compulsorily covered under this scheme.Unemployment insurance
Under Part 2 of the National Insurance Act 1911, which dealt with unemployment insurance, most insured workers were given seven shillings in unemployment benefit which could be claimed for up to 15 weeks a year. This scheme was also financed through the contributions of workers and government. Although only a minority of workers were insured by this scheme, it nevertheless covered a number of trades and industries, such as shipbuilding, which were particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in employment.Agriculture
Various measures were introduced to improve the quality of rural life. The Agricultural Holdings Act, passed in 1906, allowed farmers to farm their holdings without interference from landlords,. The Small Holdings and Allotments Act of 1907 and the Consolidation Act of 1908 sought to limit the degree to which fixtures and improvements remained the property of landlords, and to increase the number of small farmers. Another Smallholdings and Allotments Act, passed in 1908, empowered county councils to purchase agricultural land to lease as smallholdings. Between 1908 and 1914 some 200,000 acres were acquired by county councils and some 14,000 holdings were created.Reforms after 1910
After 1910 the Liberal Party did not have a majority in the House of Commons and so entered into a coalition with 42 Labour Party MPs who had been elected. This led to further reforms as the Liberals required Labour support and Irish support to remain in office. In 1912, school clinics were set up to treat children who had been diagnosed as having an illness during a School Medical under the 1907 scheme. This measure ensured that more children had access to free medical care. From 1912, Exchequer grants were paid to education authorities providing medical treatment for children, and by 1914, 214 out of the (then) 317 local authorities were providing some kind of medical treatment for children.In 1913, a Trade Union Act was passed which clarified the legal position of trade unions while also restoring their political power, together with the financial position of the Labour Party. In 1914, Local Authorities received grants from the government to provide maternal and child welfare services. The budget introduced that same year brought greater progressivity into the taxation system by increasing levels of direct taxation on the wealthy while also investing more money in social services. The educational grant was increased, with money allocated towards the training of specialist teachers, schools for the deformed, grants for open-air schools for victims of TB
TB
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, and further state provision for school-meal services. In addition, new provisions for maternity centres, sanitoria, and ancillary health services under the 1911 insurance bill were introduced, together with £4 million in loans for local authority house-building.
The People's Budget (1909)
The Liberal reforms were funded by David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
passing his Finance Bill (that he called "the People's Budget
People's Budget
The 1909 People's Budget was a product of then British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith's Liberal government, introducing many unprecedented taxes on the wealthy and radical social welfare programmes to Britain's political life...
") which taxed the "rich" in order to subsidize "working" citizens and the ill and injured.
Lloyd George argued that his budget would eliminate poverty, and commended the budget thus:
The budget met opposition in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
and, contrary to British constitutional convention, the Conservatives used their large majority in the Lords to vote down the Budget. In response, the Liberals turned to (what they believed to be) the widespread unpopularity of the Lords to make reducing the power of the Lords an important issue of the January 1910 general election.
The Liberals returned in a hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...
after the election: The Liberals formed a minority government
Minority government
A minority government or a minority cabinet is a cabinet of a parliamentary system formed when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in the parliament but is sworn into government to break a Hung Parliament election result. It is also known as a...
with the support of the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
and Irish nationalist
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
MPs. The Lords subsequently accepted the Budget when the land tax proposal was dropped. However, as a result of the dispute over the Budget, the new government introduced resolutions (that would later form the Parliament Bill) to limit the power of the Lords. The Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, asked Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
to create sufficient new Liberal peers
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
to pass the Bill if the Lords rejected it. The King assented, provided that Asquith went back to the polls to obtain an explicit mandate for the constitutional change.
The Lords voted this 1910 Parliament Bill down, so Asquith called a second general election in December 1910, and again formed a minority government. Edward VII had died in May 1910, but George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
agreed that, if necessary, he would create hundreds of new Liberal peers to neutralise the Conservative majority in the Lords. The Conservative Lords then backed down, and on 10 August 1911, the House of Lords passed the Parliament Act 1911
Parliament Act 1911
The Parliament Act 1911 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is constitutionally important and partly governs the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords which make up the Houses of Parliament. This Act must be construed as one with the Parliament Act 1949...
by a narrow 131–114 vote.
In his War Memoirs, Lloyd George said of this time that "the partisan warfare that raged around these topics was so fierce that by 1913, this country was brought to the verge of civil war."
Limitations
While the Liberal reforms were one of Britain's most ambitious welfare reform programmes, there were several limitations to the reforms they passed. Free school meals were not compulsory. Pensions were refused to those who had not been in work most of their life and life expectancy at this time was only 55 so many people never lived long enough to receive a pension. The labour exchange programme often managed to find people only part-time casual work. The poor had to pay National Insurance Contributions out of their wages and the 7s 6d was not enough to live on. Unemployment and sickness pay also only lasted for a limited time. Free medical care was available to only a wage-earner, not the wife or children or grandparents and other relatives. The welfare measures introduced by the Liberal government concerning the sick, the elderly, and the children did, however, lead to a reduction in poverty, with the total number of paupers falling from 916,377 in 1910 to 748,019 by 1914. :)Contemporary criticism
Market Forces
Market Forces is a science fiction novel by Richard Morgan, first published in 2004.Set in 2049 in the wake of a global economic downturn called the Domino Recessions, it follows up-and-coming executive Chris as he plunges into the profitable field of Conflict Investment...
and thus being antithetical to the operations of a free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
. One political cartoon of the time criticised the reforms as socialist in nature. The cost of the reforms was also criticised and there were also critics who suggested that the reforms would not work in practice.
There were classical liberals who opposed these reforms; this included Harold Cox
Harold Cox
Harold Cox was a Liberal MP for Preston from 1906 to 1909.-Early life:The son of Homersham Cox a County Court judge, Cox was educated at Tonbridge School in Kent and was Scholar and later Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge where he took a mathematics degree in 1882...
, elected as a Liberal in 1906, and who was almost alone among Liberal MPs in his opposition. He considered them to be "eroding freedom" and "undermining individual responsibility". The Liberal journalist and editor of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
(1907–1916), F. W. Hirst, also opposed the reforms and the welfare state in general.
Some workers objected to paying 4d per week to the National Insurance contributions. The chant "Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief" was chanted at Lloyd George by workers and referred to the suggestion that Welshman Lloyd George was taking their wages away from them. However, Lloyd George responded with his famous phrase "Nine pence for four pence" which referenced to that fact that employers and the government were topping up the workers' contributions.
Legislation
- Trade Disputes Act 1906Trade Disputes Act 1906The Trade Disputes Act 1906 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed under the Liberal government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman...
– Protected labour unions from frivolous legal claims, such as the subject of a strike claiming economic damages caused by the voluntary withholding of labour by workers, or the subject of a boycott claiming the union economically damaged them by encouraging people to voluntarily shop elsewhere. - Workmen's Compensation Act 1906Workmen's Compensation Act 1906The Workmen's Compensation Act 1906 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which dealt with the right of working people for compensation for personal injury....
– Granted compensation for injury at work. - Merchant Shipping Act 1906Merchant Shipping Act 1906Introduced in 1906 by David Lloyd George, then President of the Board of Trade, the Merchant Shipping Act established regulations covering the standards of food and accommodation on British registered ships. It was part of a number of acts introduced by David Lloyd George, and later Winston...
- Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906The Education Act 1906 is an Act of the Parliament of the United KingdomMargaret McMillan and Fred Jowett were members of the School Board which introduced free school meals in Bradford. This was actually illegal and the School Board could have been forced to end this service...
- Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907Education (Administrative Provisions) Act 1907The 1907 Education Act was an Act of Parliament passed by the Liberal government as part of their Liberal reforms package of welfare reforms. The Act set up school medical services run by local government....
– created school medical inspections . - Matrimonial Causes Act 1907Matrimonial Causes Act 1907The Matrimonial Causes Act 1907 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated previous legislation relating to maintenance payments to separated and divorced women. It was designed in response to one cause of poverty amongst mothers and their children, marriage break-up....
- Mines Act 1908Mines Act 1908The Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908 , also known as the Eight Hours Act or the Coal Mines Act, was a piece of social legislation passed in 1908 in the United Kingdom by the then Liberal government. It limited the hours a mine worker could work per day to eight hours....
– Miners now worked 8-hour days. - 1908 Children and Young Person's ActChildren Act 1908The 1908 Children's Act, also known as Children and Young Persons Act, part of the Children's Charter was a piece of government legislation passed by the Liberal government, as part of the British Liberal Party's liberal reforms package...
(Children's Charter) - Old Age Pensions Act 1908
- Labour Exchanges Act 1909Labour Exchanges Act 1909The Labour Exchanges Act 1909 was an Act of Parliament which saw the creation of Labour Exchanges. The stated purpose was to help the unemployed find employment....
- Trade Boards Act 1909Trade Boards Act 1909The Trade Boards Act 1909 was a piece of social legislation passed in the United Kingdom in 1909. It provided for the creation of boards which could set minimum wage criteria that were legally enforceable...
- Housing and Town Planning Act 1909Housing and Town Planning Act 1909The Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1909 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which prevented the building of "back-to-back" houses. The act also meant local authorities must introduce systems of town planning and meant homes had to be built to certain standards....
- National Insurance Act 1911National Insurance Act 1911The National Insurance Act 1911 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act is often regarded as one of the foundations of modern social welfare in the United Kingdom and forms part of the wider social welfare reforms of the Liberal Government of 1906-1914...
- Shops Act 1911Shops Act 1911The Shops Act 1911 was a piece of legislation passed in the United Kingdom which allowed a weekly half holiday for shop staff. This became known in Britain as "early closing day".-Background:...
– shop owners could now take half a day off work per week. - Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act 1912
From 1911 MPs were given a salary of £400 per annum, meaning that it was much easier for working class people to stand for election.
Further reading
- Origins of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, 1906–14 (Studies in economic and social history) by James Roy Hay ISBN 978-0333135884
External links
- BBC site assessing reasons for the Liberal reforms
- Liberal welfare reforms 1906–11
- Achievements of the Liberal reforms
- An interactive 'spider diagram' showing reasons for the Liberal reforms
- BBC bitesize revision site
- BBC page on the nature of the reforms
- BBC page on the effect the Liberal reforms had on different sections of society
- Historic inflation calculator