The Wimpey No-fines House was a construction method and series of house designs produced by the George Wimpey company and intended for mass-production of social housing for families, developed under the Ministry of Works post-World War II Emergency Factory Made programme. "No-fines" refers to the type of concrete used - concrete with no fine aggregates. Background A rapid increase in the birth rate compounded by the loss of city centre housing during the Blitz meant demand for accommodation in post-World War II Britain was particularly intense. Skilled labour and materials were in short supply and commanded high prices. Local government around the country commissioned large building projects to meet the demand, and innovative designs like the no-fines house gave private contractors like George Wimpey, and later the Corolite Construction Company, a compelling proposition to give the state. Wimpey's houses could be produced rapidly and cheaply, minimising the need for in-demand skills like bricklaying. From the early 1920s, around 1000 of these 'clinker' aggregate or 'no fines' houses were built in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Manchester, with 650 being built in Manchester starting in 1924 and taking 3 years to complete. In 2010, the south Manchester suburb of Burnage still displays fine examples of no-fines, clinker construction. Wimpey's design was particularly successful and many thousands were built in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In the late 1950s, the emphasis for public housing moved to high-rise accommodation. Design Designed to a Ministry of Works specification, no-fines houses focused on functional design for family life. There are only a handful of variations in the houses built, and typically all variants are found on each estate: 2-bedroom semi-detached and terraced houses 3-bedroom semi-detached houses of which there are two styles a gable end at both sides of the house a sloping hip end at both sides of the house Short terraces of 3, 4, 6 or 8 houses, each of which either 2 bedroom end terrace (as found in St. Helens Merseyside) 3-bedroom end or mid-terrace 4-bedroom mid-terrace with integral ginnel (or ginnels on 6 and 8 house terraces) for rear access Many examples are accompanied by a single-storey brick-built outbuilding, either in semi-detached arrangement set behind the house, or linking one house to the next. Shops in rows of 3 shops with 4 flats/bedsits above the shops, with access to the flats via stairs on either side of the shops. 3 storey blocks