A lot of people used council housing as a stepping stone. My parents were an example. Lived in a tiny 1.5 up and 1.5 down for a few years, then got a council house and lived there for 7 years, then became owner-occupiers.
Times have changed of course. Apart from an overall housing shortage post-war, there were millions of 'slums', back-to-backs with no room for internal sanitation, such as one up and one downs with a 'cellarhead' kitchen. I remember visiting those (and as a four year old falling backwards down the cellar steps of one).
But-the public sector could build houses that are needed. Developers build whatever makes the most profit, for obvious reasons. Most proposed 'affordable' houses never get built, they are often in the first planning application but later revisions swerve into a plan with a much smaller proportion of them. Why planning departments accept this I don't know, but it's probably because they get at least some houses built.
Then there are areas where simply nothing is affordable. Locally a developer bought a 20 metre wide plot with a 1970s detached house on it, demolished the house and built a terrace of three tiny houses - for sale at £500,000 each.
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