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Our Benefactor

Sir John Mactaggart bt.

(30/9/1867 - 24/11/1956)

Described in his obituary as “in the front rank of Scottish industrialists” John Mactaggart, was a visionary of how to deliver affordable housing and the writing of housing policy for Scotland, England and the United States. He was also promoter of peace through the League of Nations and sponsor of the film industry. Such achievement is all the more surprising given John Mactaggart ’s modest start in life.

Son of a Glasgow coppersmith, his education prepared him for the Civil Service but he took a job in a timber merchants, where he was described as “a wizard with figures”. He became Chief Accountant at age 21 then turned his attention to the property and building potential of his employer ’s business. By the age of 31,Mactaggart having produced 1,500 houses for his employer, decided it was time to start his own business. By 1900,John Mactaggart was both building houses and pioneering concepts of pre-fabrication so that within a decade, his output exceeded 2,500 affordable homes. More amazing however, was his approach, which understood human aspirations. Every one of his houses was designed, specified, financed, managed and marketed so that it was affordable but still met the occupier ’s aspiration for a better standard of living. Consequently Mactaggart ’s houses had the then unheard of feature of an internal WC and separate bathrooms. A Scottish Office enquiry into housing described him as “the man who made Glasgow bathroom conscious”. The post First World War “Homes for Heroes ”initiatives and the Addison Act of 1919 provided vast subsidies to local authorities to produce houses and it was primarily to Mactaggart that Glasgow Corporation turned for a solution. In response, he added thousands of innovative houses to the Glasgow housing stock.

Over the years, Mactaggart acquired or launched companies to cover all his diverse activities. Just one of these companies had a property portfolio of 6,038 houses for rent under the 1924 Act, a housing stock larger than many of the Scottish boroughs. Not surprisingly, these houses were maintained, let and managed in-house and his Company’s management procedures were the role models proposed for local authorities to adopt in a report on the subject in 1938. On reaching the age of 60,John Mactaggart turned his attention to producing housing both in London and the United States. In London, his developments included flats adjacent to the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane and another upmarket development that funds the activities of Commonweal Housing today. In 1936,his impact in the United States resulted in him being a special advisor on housing matters to President Roosevelt for Roosevelt ’s “New Deal ”.

It is typical of John Mactaggart that in 1938,to celebrate his Baronetcy for his contribution to housing, he used his celebratory dinner to launch a new scheme to relieve overcrowding through the renovation and refurbishment of tenement properties. Even when building affordable homes, Sir John was concerned with building wholesome communities with the result that many of his larger developments included parks and playing fields that he donated to the communities occupying his homes.

As in life, in death Sir John continued to surprise people, this time by the surprisingly small value of his estate. Thinking about the future, he had long since divested himself of nearly all of his personal wealth so that his vision of providing better housing could continue into the future.