A HOUSING EFFORT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 25, 29 July 1924, Page 4

A HOUSING EFFORT

The Labour housing scheme has been accepted by the British House of Commons after long consideration and debate. Mr. Wheatley, the Minister responsible for the measure, has stated that it is not Socialism, but an attempt to patch up in the interests of humanity a better capitalist-ordered society. The scheme is. to subsidise houses erected for letting at the rate of £12 10s annum in rural areas and £9 elsewhere, if the local authority which erects the houses grants a smaller subsidy. The difference between this and the scheme inaugurated by the Conservative Government last year is that Mr. Wheatley's houses are- to be let, not sold; they are to be built by the local authorities and the subsidy is' to be much greater. Compared with the Conservative subsidy of £75 the Labour Government offers an annual subsidy from local rates and the State, of which the present value is assessed at £243. In the aggregate this will represent an expenditure which will sooner or later amount to £1,400,000,000. Conservative critics have calculated the cost at a much larger sum. Mr. Wheatley himself claims that his scheme will nevertheless be a success because he has obtained guarantees from the buildang industry which will suspend the law of supply'and demand, so that the cost of the houses will not rise as building increases. The most effective criticism of his measure is that there is no sound guarantee that the houses will be. built for the stipulated sums. Mr. Neville Chamberlain has pointed out that there will be two subsidy schemes in operation u,r. the same time; one offering £75 to private enterprise for houses which may be sold and the other giving £243 to local authorities for dwellings which must be let. If the supply of labour and material is not increased private enterprise, being free to pay whatever it desires, will compete with the local authorities for supplies, Mr. Wheatley himself has admitted that a danger exists of suppliers of building material breaking away from the guarantees given by their associations that prices will not be raised. When his measure was first introduced, he acknowledged that there, was a risk of this "profiteering" an d he proposed to introduce a Bill to fix prices unless it could be proved that an increase was justified by reason of increased wages or similar cause. This evidently is the measure to which Sir Patrick Hastings has alluded as "the first letters of Socialism." But in the measure which Mr. Wheatley foreshadowed increased wages wer& specially excepted. At the time Mr. Neville Chamberlain pointed cut that even if the Government prevented outright profiteering it could not restrict rises which might be due to reasonable wages increases. However, the attempt is evidently to be made, aud Mr. Wheatley is of opinion that he can suspend the law of supply and demand. He will not be the first to try; but if he manages to give a great impetus to the house-build-ing industry without increasing costs .ho will have accomplished something like a modern uiirado.