The impact of philanthropy: housing provision and the Sutton Model Dwellings Trust, 1900-1939

This article reassesses the potential of philanthropic housing for the poor in England. The Sutton Model Dwellings Trust, founded in 1900, did not sha re the problems usually associated with voluntary agencies. It was wealthy and free of commercial, geographical, and organizational limitations. This article places the trust in the spectrum of philanthropic activity and disc usses legal and political responses to its potential power. Using tenants' registers, it shows how, despite the constraints placed upon its philanthro py, the trust nevertheless made a substantial contribution. Between 1909 an d 1939, it provided housing of advanced design to a wide range of poor tena nts.