The slow industrialisation of the post-war British home: early adopters, drivers, constraints, and economic impacts

This study examines the diffusion of major labour-saving durables and their key drivers and constraints, from the early post-war era to 1981. We draw data from a range of sources, including the Family Expenditure Survey; the “Oxford savings surveys,” the Population Census; and commercial surveys. These provide a series of “snap-shots” for the early 1950s to the mid-1960s, together with annual data from 1969 onwards.