SEVEN PILLARS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 6 October 1942, Page 1

SEVEN PILLARS

PLANNING RECONSTRUCTION BUREAUCRACY “SLOW AND INEFFICIENT” A warning that too many cooks ma.v spoil the broth of po*t-war reconstruction was given by Mr David W Smith, chairman of the British Building Societies' Association and general manager ol the Halifax Building Society. He told the annual the association to beware of ManSrjlinism. the unrestricted bureaucraticcontrol of reconstruction, for bureaueiac.v is slow, inefficient, and paralysing to free initiative. Mr Smith outlined seven pillars on which the new Britain should rest.— Firstly, we must be prepared for the new Britain to be largely planned according to strategical considerations, in the immediate future, and perhaps for several generations to come, the strategical dispersal of industry and populations must be of paramount importance to this island nation. Never again must Britain be in danger of a knockout blow from bombing, gas or invasion. Secondly, there is the industrial and economic factor. Never again do we wish to see a recurrence of the problem of the derelict areas which exercjsed our minds in the years preceding the war. Our industrial eggs should never be placed in one basket. Dependence on a single industry often condemns whole population* to a cramped social and economic outlook, an insidious form of industrial slavery, a narrow and isolated way of life, with the ever present threat of unemployment and economic distress through bad trade or the collapse of the staple industry. The problem of a well-balanced manufacturing and agricultural policy, as well as the expediency of ensuring the safety of the food supply in all areas in time of emergency, may well require a much closer juxtaposition of field and factory throughout the land, the transfer ol' an ever-increasing proportion of the population to the soil, closer settlement on the land, more intensive cultivation, better and buildings, better homes for farrr workers, and rural amenities of ai sorts. INLAND PORTS Thirdly. transport. Britain is i well-rcaded and well-railwayed coun //, but the evolution of our vast transport systems, w'hich has been fortuitous rather than planned, has tended to aggravate the problem of industrial location and distribution of population. I foresee the possibility of a wide scale revival of the small ports, a building of more and more inland ports, and the consequential development of inland waterways attracting considerable populations along their routes. Fourthly. I put materials, plant and labour. How utterly futile will be all our good intentions and elaborate plan, ning unless we can accurately forecast the trend of production of materials for several years to come and are able to forestall, by planned controI # of all building requisites, the frustrating effects of racketeering, manipulation and price inflation. THE WILL AND THE WAY Only fifthly I place the problem ol finance. There can be no excuse for repeating the errors of the last postwar period, when many millions of pounds were recklessly squandered in ill-conceived Government and municipal housing schemes that have left a burden of debt for posterity to carry. Private enterprise and the building societies can and should again play a major part in providing houses for the homeless and the war-weary in the post-war iccuusti ucLon. I believe that the "little man,” through his building society, will relieve the country of the financial strain of that part of the reconstruction programme which relates to the housing of the population.

VEXED QUESTION OF DESIGN Sixth is the vexed question of building standards, design and layout. While building societies cannot acknowledge responsibility for the standards of construction observed in the propertiea against which they lend money, they will undoubtedly welcome measures to sweep away jerry-building. Whether satisfactory standards are voluntarily imposed by the building industry in co-operation with the architectural profession or arbitrarily prescribed by Parliament, I trust that we shall start the reconstruction programme with the door bolted and barred against the jerry-builder. Likewise, lam against ribbon-building and that form of rural and semi-rural development that is promptly purely by speculation and has no relation to national or local needs. Seventhly, there is the problem of administration The past division of power between, the central authority represented by the Ministry of Health, and the various local authorities—cities. county boroughs, urban and rural districts—has led to chaos in policy, regulations and standards. Let us hope that the creation of the new Ministry of Works and Planning will not lead to confusion worse confounded, but will pave the way to reasonable standardisation of rules, procedure and regulations and a sharper definition of function.