HOUSING PROBLEM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 8 November 1919, Page 5

HOUSING PROBLEM

BRITISH BUILDING SCHEMES.' 400,000 NEW DWELLINGS. An official of the British Ministry of Health describes the progress that is being made with housing schemes throughout the country. He suggests that Dr Addison’s ' {precast of 100)000 houses built and occupied by next spring will bo fulfilled. Some hundreds of houses in London have been selected for conversion into flats. Army hut s are also to be utilised.

The official in question 1 stated l that the 100,000 houses mentioned were but an instalment -of -what wag to ■ come; for >«chcme s had already been submitted to the jbooal G oveihmmt Board vHiiqh provide for the ultimate erection of more than 400,000 houses. Mteanwhile, temporary measures, calculated to relievo overcrowding conditions during the coming l winter, were well in' hand. ' , .i “Before the war about 70,000 houses wore 1 built every year,’* he said ing the war no houses were bunt. Available supplie s for building, which had accumulated in builders’ yarjlb, were gradually vised 1 up in sum repair work as was undertaken, and those supplies were not replaced, oßritfk works ceased! to make bracks, ■ —many of them. were, taken over foi work in connection with munitions, or converted to make something else urgently needed for war purposes. ihe cessation of building alone meant) that at the close of the war we were faced with » shortage of 350,000 houses, but those figures did not represent the whole-’Shortage. AVheu *ho. tha number of houses throughout; the country generally was insufficient for the needk of the people, knd! a Tremendous proportion of the population of Lvmioov livln S under conditions which 1 constituted over-crowding. t'Thorefore 1 ' the present 1 famme is due to W factors ’lhNi-wdv 'shortage,. 2. No building during the war. this wag seen by the Govern' mentf aaid the Reconstruction MWialtw. responsible for honsmg, get out «n■ * tJSe of the number of hous« whffih would have to be built. Then came the question of the best way o P - ceed. In the ordinary, coniwe of events it could have been left safely to tJm private builder, but the position' was anite upset by the cost of material. 3$ r became that- hew hottse 8 would S an «ST". to enable the .v«JBe i torn double to dmAle and ready restricted by Ac, ot r* - n clamour ones would not be taken up- r, vcm . “The result was that iove n ment had to formulate A building houses, the ie .■ SwW*W «»»f ““’• ™ !a S n tO T £ rent of thnto already T^’ entailed a unMdywhicVtadl *> raised bv the nation itseii. ra light td leave it to pnv^o ritertliut tbyrovi^m of houses more or less under p ,C °“T}i6 Government chose the course,, and. pubho cOtt iol .now exists m the tacj n wtod authorities, which we u \^ y h ousbg bodie?, are responsible far needls.of are^ than through pnvate tlie ‘The alternative to S hut that State should build dvrec , would not have allowed the same »| sure of democratic control qptiqn <i» is possible when , «>•*. State lay, down •'»» K* n ®^lL'J£ rl ,iy which building- go f with a view to ensuring that' c jUt Srotf to peated—-the tu&o&\ av ■* . p the people themselves; .through # elected representative 8 -’ MaTch “At the beginning _ol * - v j number of «oe Govern been submitted] ,to hj - , The mm ***££ r 4172, JU*** number to 1 *./ linl .i «■ 4 more than 40,000 acres the of'.wore W** . «.Vihe'* ’hi “The figures relate to 8 fhW'iniid^uVr»*a«e- ° n « themes. aVrtady.Meb '™dwSy.‘” B ”^ll,Sf ®piiSf will^obiHy weeks.”

KEEP THEM h A *? : berhvin’a They are ?ood for the voting as well as bw-Uliv’s Tablet* «« ih» "4JH * JaiWV# you can buy, everywhei I #.