Red Clydeside: A history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932

Events

Magazine article entitled 'The Clyde Rent War', Dec 1924

The origins of the Clydebank rent strike of the 1920s lie in the Glasgow rent strike of 1915. The outcome of the 1915 dispute was a temporary victory for working class tenants as the government passed the 1915 Rent Restrictions Act, freezing working class rents at pre-1914 levels for the duration of the war.

In 1920 the government passed the Rent and Mortgage Restrictions Act which permitted landlords an immediate increase on rents of 15% and a further increase of 25% if essential repairs were done on the property.

Although their was a call for a rent strike throughout the Glasgow area, there was little resistance to paying the increased rents except in Clydebank. In their determination not to pay rent increases in a period of mass unemployment the working class tenants of Clydebank waged a lengthy legal struggle over the following 3-4 years with the property owners and factors of Clydebank, effectively making the 1920 Act unworkable for a long period in Clydebank.