NEW HOUSING SCHEME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21989, 26 June 1933, Page 4

NEW HOUSING SCHEME

PRIVATE FIRM’S ENTERPRISE EXPERIMENT IN SCOTLAND An interesting experiment in housing schemes, and one which is believed to be without a parallel in the British Isles, has recently been initiated on the out- j skirts of the City of Perth (Scotland). That which gives the scheme its special significance, and offers encouragement for the belief that in the near future the .task of demolishing the slums of crowded cities in Great Britain—and incidentally of great cities the world over—may be prosecuted with greater success, is that the effort has been made not by the Government or by a eity corporation, but by a private linn. It is, perhaps, not too much to hope that the example which has been set by Messrs Arthur Bell and Sons, Ltd., in Perthshire, may bo followed by private individuals and companies in other centres of population where overcrowding lias become an evil threatening the moral and physical standards of the people. 1

In conversation with a Daily Times rcporter on Saturday, Mr W. G~ Farquharson, a director of the firm mentioned, which is well known as the makers of Bell’s whisky, explained some details of the scheme. Mr Farquharson stated that, owing partly to the rising standard of living in the prosperous years following the war, a demand had arisen among the working classes for better housing, conditions. In addition, there had been a good deal of agitation in recent years for the clearance of slum areas. The result was that a shortage of houses of a better type- had been experienced, and various building scheme had been initiated by local authorities, in many cases assisted by Government subsidies, for the purpose of meeting this position. The bouses erected, in Scotland at least, were mostly of the “-block ’’ type, three or four bouses being included in the one block of buildings with small sections of land for the tenants’ gardens. In spite of this building activity, the shortage of houses continued, and, with the idea of doing something in a small way to provide homes for the people, Messrs'Arthur Bell and Sons decided to put in hand a scheme of their own. An area of freehold land was purchased on the outskirts of the city of Perth, and on this the firm erected some lot) houses, each a complete residence of four or five I rooms with its own section of ground. J

The houses were of a particularly solid type, having been built of stone, with walls over two feet in thickness. Mini they were equipped with all the modern appointments. Streets had been marked out, and water and gas iam on, me whole of the work being carried out at I the company's expense. The houses, I which were completed a little over a ; year ago, where then let to specially i selected tenants. Those were not erai ployees of the firm, and the scheme had I not been undertaken for the purpose of I making a profit on the capital invested, • | but as a contribution to the solution j j of the problem of removing the housing j I shortage. The results which had been j ! achieved, Mr Farquharson stated, nad i ! been eminently satisfactory, and this j j form of private enterprise in the public j welfare could he confidently commended j as worthy of imitation. i