The Politics of Consumer Credit in the UK, 1938-1992

Abstract

Over a decade on from the ‘credit crunch’ and with recurring warnings of the potential for a repeat of that financial trauma, this book offers the first sustained historical investigation of the politics of consumer credit in modern Britain. It explains why, by the 1980s, Britain had the most diverse and liberalized consumer credit sector in Europe. This was the result of myriad factors and was not simply the product of a shift to neo-liberal thinking. The Politics of Consumer Credit in the UK explores how the UK government often struggled to manage the burgeoning consumer credit sector between the 1930s and the 1990s. Also inspected are the important role of actors with varying degrees of influence on policymaking, ranging from the Bank of England, the representatives of consumer finance associations and consumer durable manufacturers, and consumers and their spokespersons. The book’s central focus is on consumer credit, but it also provides a case study through which a number of important areas of British history can be re-examined. Issues discussed here include: the ‘post-war consensus’ and its demise; the impact of rising home ownership and its consumer credit; the rise of affluence and the responses to this of the major political parties; the management of consumer society from both a consumer protection perspective as well as in terms of macroeconomic policy; class, gender, and race and equitable access to personal financial products; and the place of consumer credit in Keynesianism, neo-liberalism, and privatized Keynesianism.