 |
|
| EHJ June 2002 |
|
|
1970
- June 19 - Edward Heath wins for the Conservatives by 30
seats.
- Department of the Environment created, overseeing planning,
housing, local government and transport.
- Social Services Act. Councils set up social services departments,
combining children's, mental health and welfare services.
- Medical officers of health are transferred from public
health departments to the NHS.
|
 |
1971
- Decimal currency introduced.
1972
- Housing Finance Act encourages slum clearance. Boost to home
improvement grants.
- Water responsibilities removed from councils.
- Local Government Act, implemented in 1974, sets up six metropolitan
counties, 47 non-metropolitan counties, 333 districts and 36 metropolitan
districts, reducing 1,400 councils in England and Wales to 422.
- Troubles in Northern Ireland including "Bloody Sunday".
- Unemployment reaches one million.
- Eleven Clay Cross councillors surcharged for refusing to increase
council rents.
1973
- Britain joins the European Community. Three day week.
1974
- March - General election.
Harold Wilson forms a minority government. Labour freezes councils
rents and
repeals the unpopular Housing Finance Act.
- Housing Action Areas. More than 100,000 council house completions
this year. Rent Act extends security of tenure to nearly all furnished
tenants.
- Health and Safety at Work Act. Creation of the Health and Safety
Commission and executive Association of Public Health Inspectors
becomes Environmental Health Officers Association (EHOA)
- John Poulson, architect, jailed for receiving bribes.
1975
- Britain votes to stay in Europe.
1976
- April - Harold Wilson resigns. James Callaghan succeeds him
as PM.
- Stirling crisis. Standard spending assessments and the housing
investment programme - stringent financial controls.
- Race Relations Act.
- EHOA members lobby Parliament over European inspection proposals
for poultry
meat.
1977
- Homeless Person's Act.
- Councils given duty to house defined homeless people.
- Silver Jubilee. Twenty-five year celebrations of the reign of
Elizabeth II.
- Lib-Lab pact keeps Labour in power. Jeremy Thorpe trial.
- Winter of discontent.
1979
- May - Conservatives win general election by 43 seats. Margaret
Thatcher is the first woman prime minister. She benefits from
North Sea oil and revenue from privatisations, beginning with
British Telecom in 1984. She frees up the right to buy.
- Black Report. Recommends increases in child benefit, quadrupling
of maternity
grant and free school meals for all.
- Unemployment passes two million.
1981
- Environmental Health Officers Association becomes Institution
of Environmental
Health Officers (IEHO).
- Royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
- Wildlife and Countryside Act protects endangered species.
- Creation of the Social Democrat Party. Riots in Brixton, followed
by Southall,
Toxteth and Moss Side. Lord Scarman reports on Brixton.
- Development corporations begin. English house condition survey
shows 1.1 million
unfit dwellings.
1982
- Falklands War.
- Protests at Greenham Common American airbase.
- Staining of unfit meat and tougher penalties for food offences,
following discovery of meat trade malpractices.
1983
- June - Margaret Thatcher re-elected with a 144 majority, the
largest since 1945.
- Centenary of the IEHO.
- Neil Kinnock becomes Labour leader, replacing Michael Foot.
1984
- Right to buy discount increased.
- Privatisation of British Telecom.
- IEHO granted royal charter.
- Miners' strike.
- Civil servant Sarah Tisdell jailed for six months.
- Bomb attack on the Grand Hotel, Brighton.
- First case of BSE identified in Sussex.
1985
- Rate capping.
- Lambeth councillors surcharged.
- Duke of Edinburgh's Enquiry into British housing.
- End of miners' strike.
- Death of PC Blakelock at Broadwater Farm Brixton disturbances.
- Faith in the city report.
1986
- Michael Heseltine resigns from Thatcher's cabinet.
- Social Security Act.
- Public Order Act.
- Abolition of six metropolitan counties, including the Greater
London Council.
- Chernobyl nuclear accident.
- Unemployment reaches 3.5 million.
- Privatisation of British Gas.
- BSE identified as a cattle disease.
- Chadwick House Group Ltd set up as trading arm of IEHO. Launch
of Environmental
Health News.
1987
- June - Conservatives win by 100 seats. Thatcher pledges action
on education, housing and the inner cities.
- Herald of Free Enterprise disaster. Storm kills 17 people.
- Black Monday stock market crash.
- IRA bomb explodes at Enniskillen, killing 11 people.
- King's Cross fire causes 30 deaths.
1988
- Housing Act introduces assured tenancies and accelerates stock
transfer.
- UK housing market collapses.
- SBO regulations remove infected material from animal feed, to
control BSE.
|
