In Homes for People, Carl Chinn recounts how in 19th Century Birmingham, the best governed city in the world, scores of thousands of Brummies lived in badly built and insanitary back-to-backs. He stresses how the poor of Brum fought back against their poverty by forging powerful neighbourhood ties, and he examines why in the twentieth century the corporation accepted the need to build great numbers of council houses and rid itself of its back-to-backs.

"Every city should know its own history. This book tells us graphically what a struggle it has been to improve housing of the people of Birmingham and what resilient and adaptable people Brummies are".

Rt. Hon Clare Short M.P.