This paper is a contribution to the debate about the local state and its activity in the relations and practices of regulation. Housing production programmes are examined at the level of the municipality, as a way of shedding light on the institutional structuring of the activity of agents in housing production. Changes in the characteristics of these programmes are located within the broader field of central–local state relations. A case study focuses on the relations surrounding council housing production in one particular locality—the north London borough of Haringey—during the 1980s. Detailed attention is given to the activity of Haringey's own building capacities through its direct labour organisation. A model of municipalised construction in housing production is proposed as providing an insight into the structure and form of the social relations of housing provision. In conclusion, this approach is put forward as a way of understanding the characteristics of local state restructuring beyond municipal housing production.