HOUSING REVOLUTION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 6 December 1924, Page 5

HOUSING REVOLUTION.

' — —- , LORD WEIR’S STEEL HOU&fcS. Describing a visit to the steel houses which Lord Weir has put up as ah experiment at Cathcart, a suburb of. Glasgow, a special correspondent says: — First' and foremost the steel house dispenses entirely with the. skilled building trades, whose depleted but closed ranks are fundamentally responsible for our ever-accumulating arrears of houses. • Steel plates for the outer walls elminate the bricklayer, multiple production of timber units by the use of jigs, etc., ehninates the skilled joiner, composition boards for the inner walls elminate the plasterer, metallic shingles or asbestos slates elminate the skilled slater, and by the standardisation of planning all the pipes can be produced and fitted up independently of the plumber and the electrician. This is a master-stroke; but it need not spread dismay in the ranks of these skilled trades. There is plenty of work for all for years ahead, but most people have come to think that the monopoly enjoyed by these trades of recent years has been for the good of no one but themselves. In his speech in the House of Lords, Lord Weir, made it quite clear that his scheme was supplementary to Mr. Wheatley’s, and aimed at the building of 000,000 steel houses in the next five years for the rehousing of our slum population. The demonstration house erected at Cathcart is a three roomed bungalow, and its price at the works is meantime £360. After the laying of the foundation the house can be erected in eight days.

The Scottish Board Health. having agreed that the steel houses with which Lord Weir is. experimenting, may ;rank for subsidy in connection with municipal housing schemes, Glasgow. Corporation Housing Committee has decided to extend its experiment at Drumoyne bv building twenty such houses in--o?A,of ten ’ as fo, ‘ mcrl y agreed upon. Ha lf the number will he of the bungalow type, and the remainder in blocks of two.

. Hie committee have also been inspecmg a type of steel house promoted bv the Duke of Atholl, and it is linderrtood that Wm. Beardmore and Co., Ud y Dal ? lui 'b are to be asked to erect specimens on one of the Corooration housing sites. The Beardmore steel house, as it is named, is of two floors, hilt could he extended to several storeys if desired.