Claim: The Airey houses were designed by Sir Edwin Airey, a British civil engineer and industrialist, as a solution to the poor conditions in the rural areas due to the 1930s depression followed by wartime neglect
Evidence: Designed by Sir Edwin Airey to the Ministry of Works Emergency Factory Made housing programme, it features a frame of prefabricated concrete columns reinforced with tubing recycled from the canvas tilt frames of military trucks. The directoral debut of the later acclaimed documentary maker Paul Dickson, the film promotes the building of Airey houses in rural areas as a solution to the poor condition (due to the 1930s depression followed by wartime neglect) of much of the housing stock outside Britain's conurbations, due to the ease with which the prefabricated sections could be transported to remote locations. Sir Edwin Airey (7 February 1878 – 14 March 1955) was a British civil engineer and industrialist responsible for the Airey prefabricated houses constructed in the UK after the Second World War.