I use a big square, rectangle, oval, etc (whatever covers and hides the image completely), set the color to something ugly that obviously isn't part of the image design, then lower the shape to the bottom of the drawing so every other object is above it. Anything that is transparent will show the ugly color. When I am done editing, I delete the ugly-color shape that I created. Granted, it's a work-around, but it's relatively painless and easy to do.
Since version 0.92 (January 2017) you can instead choose a checkered background. This won't effect the background of the saved image, but will override the background shown in InkScape.
On Windows, Ctrl + Shift + D, you'll see the Document properties windows in which you can change the document background color. [See screen campture]
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I just came across this old post but though that I would add what I do to get new files to keep the features. I create a template .svg file and use that as the base for future drawings.