Post-war demand for school places encouraged local authorities to think in terms of programmes of schools rather than one-offs. To this end, prefabricated systems of construction were organised into school building 'consortia', but from c.1973 ceded to 'rationalised traditional' construction, usually in brick. Falling pupil numbers and cuts in public expenditure made the last quarter of the twentieth century an era of contraction, rationalisation and rehabilitation of building stock. Prescient themes of the 1980s include energy conservation, more enclosed plans and the introduction of market forces.