Louis Loucheur

Born in Roubaix, this graduate of Ecole Polytechnique founded the Société Générale d’Entreprises which was to become VINCI, in 1908 before becoming a supplier to the army in 1914. He joined the government in 1916 and was responsible for supplying munitions.
Named Minister of Industrial Reconstitution (1918-1920) and then the liberated regions (1921-1922), this deputy from Avesnes visited the region at the end of 1918 to assess the damage and calculate need.
Subscribing to his motto of “bien faire et laisser braire” (do good, let others talk), he worked on rehabilitating roads, railways, and factories. Minister of Labour and Social Security, in 1928, he had a law voted for low-cost housing (HBM) which bears his name. He favoured modernisation of housing and the rise of new neighbourhoods.