Horace Cutler
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Sir Horace Cutler OBE, JP |
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|---|---|
| Leader of the Greater London Council | |
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In office 1977–1981 |
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| Preceded by | Reg Goodwin |
| Succeeded by | Ken Livingstone |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
28 July 1912 Stoke Newington, London |
| Died | 2 March 1997 (aged 84) |
| Political party | Conservative |
Sir Horace Walter Cutler OBE, JP (28 July 1912 – 2 March 1997) was a British Conservative politician and Leader of the Greater London Council from 1977 to 1981. He was noted for his showmanship and flair for publicity and was, in several ways, a forerunner of Thatcherism.
Cutler was born in Stoke Newington, London, into a large but rich family. He went to Harrow County School for Boys, and then joined his father's building business. He spent World War II in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and after the war became a businessman.
In 1952 he first went into politics when he was elected as a Conservative member of Harrow Borough Council, where he became Leader of the Council in 1961. He was also elected to Middlesex County Council and was its last Leader, in 1963, before it was abolished to make way for the Greater London Council.
Cutler took one of the Harrow seats on the GLC at its first election and remained a member of it throughout its existence, one of only eight people to do so. His prominence at Middlesex made him well-known and he served as Deputy Leader under Sir Desmond Plummer when the Conservatives were in control from 1967. Plummer gave Cutler the Chairmanship of the Housing Committee which gave him responsibility for the GLC's hundreds of thousands of units of council housing. Cutler believed that local authorities had no role in housing, and instituted a scheme to allow tenants to buy their own homes at a discounted price – which later became one of the tenets of Thatcherism. He also forcibly transferred much of the GLC housing stock to the London Boroughs. Cutler was for many years a member of the Conservative Monday Club, and wrote a booklet in 1970 entitled Rents – Chaos or Commonsense? for the Club.
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