Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T23:44:24.281Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Re-thinking corruption in post- 1950 urban Britain: the Poulson affair, 1972–1976

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2012

PETER JONES
PETER JONES*
Affiliation:
Centre for Urban History, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The Poulson affair is central for the agenda of post-1950 British urban history. Particularly, it suggests that corruption is a key facet within the politics of planning and the rebuilding of Britain's urban environment. Poulson provides a useful route into an examination of the place of corruption because of the scale of his activity both in terms of volumes and types of constructions he planned. His networks and the geographical concentrations of his work also provide a regional dimension. Perceptions of Poulson have been fashioned by investigative and satirical journalism and television. A re-evaluation in light of official government sources and Poulson's autobiography raise important issues concerning the ethics of public officials and private businessmen; and the consequences of the interaction of public and private markets. Poulson's business was driven by the twin engines of government funding and the activity cycles of the construction industry. The fluctuation in his planned commissions provides a useful barometer of the planning environment. Poulson's demise exposed the complex relations between business, civil servants, ministers and local councillors contributing to growing public distrust of the workings of government. Finally, it is suggested that the affair was a critical factor in re-shaping central–local government relationships.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , August 2012 , pp. 510 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Daunton, M., ‘Epilogue’ in Daunton, M. (ed.), Cambridge Urban History of Britain, vol. III (Cambridge, 2000), 833Google Scholar.

2 Justice Waller, summing-up at Poulson's trial, Times, 12 Feb. 1974.

3 Independent, 4 Feb. 1993. Poulson had paid £155,000 to T. Dan Smith for public relations work and had also donated £22,000 to the Adeline Genée charity which was actively sponsored by Reginald Maudling's wife.

4 Justice Waller, sentencing Poulson, and George Pottinger, Times, 12 Feb. 1974.

5 L. Chester, ‘Obituary: T. Dan Smith’, Independent, 28 Jul. 1993; McCord, N., ‘Smith, Thomas Daniel [T. Dan] 1915–1993’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004–08)Google Scholar visited at www.oxforddnb.com on 15 Dec. 2009.

6 Pinto-Duschinsky, M., ‘Corruption in Britain: the Royal Commission on Standards of Conduct in Public Life’, Political Studies, 25 (1977), 274–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Garrard, J., ’Scandals: a tentative overview’, in Moore, J. and Smith, J., Corruption in Urban Politics and Society, Britain 1780–1950 (Aldershot, 2007), 26Google Scholar.

8 Kagan had links with Tony Hill, brother of Marcia Williams honoured by Harold Wilson as Lady Falkender.

9 Wilson, A.N., Our Times (London, 2008)Google Scholar; Marr, A., A History of Modern Britain (London, 2006)Google Scholar; Sandbrook, D., White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties (London, 2006)Google Scholar; Beckett, A., When the Lights Went Out: What Really Happened to Britain in the Seventies (London, 2009)Google Scholar.

10 Cook, C. and Sked, A., Post War Britain (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Morgan, K.O., The People's Peace: British History 1945–1990 (Oxford, 1990), 343Google Scholar.

11 Harrison, B., Finding a Role: The United Kingdom 1970–1990 (Oxford, 2010)Google Scholar; and his ‘The rise, fall and rise of political consensus in Britain since 1940’, History, 84 (1999), 301–24. Other cases include Lords Jellicoe and Lambton, John Stonehouse, Jeremy Thorpe and Sir Eric Miller.

12 Bastin, L., Reggie: The Life of Reginald Maudling (Gloucester, 2004)Google Scholar.

13 House of Commons Papers, Report of the Select Committee on Members Interests, 20 May 1969; Report of the Select Committee on the Conduct of Members, 13 Jul. 1977; Prime Minister's Committee on Local Government Rules of Conduct, Cmnd 5636, May 1974.

14 Fitzwalter, R. and Taylor, D., Web of Corruption: The Story of J.G.L. Poulson and T. Dan Smith (London, 1981)Google Scholar; Tompkinson, M. and Gillard, M., Nothing to Declare: The Political Corruptions of John Poulson (London, 1982)Google Scholar.

15 ‘The master builder’, Bradford Telegraph and Argus, 9 Apr. 1970.

16 World in Action programme, ‘The friends and influence of John L. Poulson’, was banned by the Independent Television Authority but later shown as ‘The rise and fall of John Poulson’ on 30 Apr. 1973.

17 Who's Who (London, 2001), 705.

18 Dunleavy, P., The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain, 1945–1975: A Study of Corporate Power and Professional Influence in the Welfare State (Oxford, 1981)Google Scholar.

19 Royal Commission on Standards of Conduct in Public Life 1974–76, Salmon Commission, Cmnd 6524; and World in Action programme, ‘A question of standards’, Granada Television, Jul. 1976.

20 Standards of Conduct, para. 37, 11.

21 Ibid., para. 39, 12.

22 Ibid.

23 Who's Who, 2167.

24 Standards of Conduct, Ward-Jackson Addendum, para. 8, 119. See also J. Calder, ‘Obituary: John Poulson’, Independent, 4 Feb. 1993.

25 Standards of Conduct, para. 9, 119–20.

26 Ibid., para, 9, 120.

27 Ibid., para. 10, 120; and Architectural Review, 148 (1970), 54.

28 Poulson's Project – Drawings and Plans, West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) C391/2/1 to C391/2/211.

29 Times, 3 Jan. 1974.

30 Times, 23 May 1974; House of Commons Papers, Report of the Select Committee on Members Interests, 20 May 1969. It was not until 12 Jun. 1975 that MPs approved a Register of Members’ Interests.

31 Report of the Select Committee of Inquiry on the Conduct of Members, chaired by Michael Stewart MP, 13 Jul. 1977.

32 Times, 4 Jan. 1974.

33 Pinto-Duschinsky, ‘Corruption in Britain’, 274–84.

34 Standards of Conduct, para. 42, 12.

35 Doig, M., Corruption and Misconduct in Contemporary British Politics (London, 1984)Google Scholar; Searle, G., Corruption in British Politics 1895–1930 (Oxford, 1987)Google Scholar; O'Leary, C., The Elimination of Corruption in British Elections 1868–1911 (Oxford, 1962)Google Scholar; Clarke, M. (ed.), Corruption (London, 1983)Google Scholar.

36 J. Moore and J. Smith, ‘Corruption and urban governance’, in Moore and Smith (eds.), Corruption in Urban Politics, 3.

37 Times, 23 Jan. 1960.

38 House of Commons Debates, 28 Jan. 1960, 380–1.

39 Burns, W., New Towns for Old: The Technique of Urban Renewal (London, 1963)Google Scholar. Burns had been involved in the post-war planning of Coventry; had worked in Newcastle with Smith and gave evidence to the Salmon Commission.

40 Poulson, John, The Price: The Autobiography of John Poulson, Architect (London, 1981), 24Google Scholar.

41 Ibid., 60.

42 Ibid., 62.

43 Ibid., 69.

44 Ibid., 183.

45 Times, 4 Jan. 1974.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid.

48 Nuijten, M. and Anders, G., Corruption and the Secret of the Law: A Legal Anthropological Perspective (Farnham, 2007), 1–24Google Scholar.

49 Huntington, S.P., Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven, 1969)Google Scholar; Weber, M., Economy and Society (New York, 1968)Google Scholar

50 Poulson, The Price, 14.

51 Nuijten and Anders, Corruption, 1–24.

52 Times, 2 Feb. 1974.

53 ‘The rise and fall of John Poulson’, World in Action, 30 Apr. 1973.

54 Laski, H., Century of Municipal Progress: The Last Hundred Years (London, 1935)Google Scholar. For a valuable explanation see Harrison, B., The Transformation of British Politics 1860–1995 (Oxford, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Loughlin, M. et al. , Half a Century of Municipal Decline 1935–1985 (London, 1985)Google Scholar; Byrne, A., Local Government in Britain: Everyone's Guide to How it All Works (London, 1986)Google Scholar.

55 J. Garrard, ’Scandals: a tentative overview’, in Moore and Smith (eds.), Corruption in Urban Politics, 24.

56 J. Smith, ‘“Ingenious and daring”: the Wolverhampton council fraud 1905 -1917’, in Moore and Smith (eds.), Corruption in Urban Politics, 113–15.

57 Allegations of Bribery and Corruption: Report to the Honourable Secretary of State for Scotland, Jun. 1933. Cmnd 4361.

58 Lord Morrison quoted by Times, 22 Feb. 1933.

59 Times, 12 Feb. 1934.

60 John Pardoe, MP, House of Commons Debates, reported in Times, 8 Jul. 1972.

61 Times, 10 Jul. 1972.

62 Standards of Conduct, para. 30, 10.

63 Ibid., Lord Houghton's Addendum, para. 5, 121.

64 Dunleavy, Politics of Mass Housing; Ravetz, A., ‘Housing the people’, in J. Fyrth (ed.), Labour's Promised Land (London, 1995)Google Scholar; and Larkham, P., ‘Rebuilding the industrial town: wartime Wolverhampton’, Urban History, 29 (2002), 388–409CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Halsey, A.H., Twentieth Century British Social Trends, 3rd edn (London, 2000)Google Scholar.

66 The tourist centre was at Aviemore in Scotland and owed much to Poulson's link with George Pottinger of the Scottish Office.

67 For a comprehensive examination of Birmingham's redevelopment and Maudsley's role see Dunleavy, Poltics of Mass Housing, 292–301.

68 Times, 12 Feb. 1970.

69 Times, 30 Dec. 1969.

70 Times, 14 Jan. 1970.

71 Marriott, O., Property Boom (London, 1967)Google Scholar.

72 Bennett, A., A Life Like Other People's (London, 2009), 62Google Scholar.

73 Vincent, D., The Culture of Secrecy: Britain, 1832-1998 (Oxford, 1998), 314Google Scholar.

74 Times, 6 Aug. 1973.

75 Gilmour, I., Dancing with Dogma: Britain under Thatcherism (London, 1992), 143–6, 212–20Google Scholar.

76 Baugh, G.C., ‘Government grants in aid of the rates in England and Wales, 1889–1990’, Historical Research, 65 (1992), 215–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.