SOME ASPECTS OF THE HOUSING PROBLEM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 9

SOME ASPECTS OF THE HOUSING PROBLEM

By H. W. Lee 111 The provision of accommodation in England for couples of severely limited means has taken the form of small houses as well as blocks of flats. Lord Balfour of Burleigh, writing of the necessity of building fully 1,000,000 new homes for workers, urged that they must be of a “ three bedroom, non-parlour type, capable of being let at 10s weekly including rates.” He also pointed out that the financing of such houses could not possibly appeal to private enterprise. The Housing Act of 1933 provided for the building of houses of this type by co-operation between building societies and the local authorities, but, as the latter held back, not a great deal was achieved by the Act. Sir Enoch Hill, president of the Halifax Building Society, with a few friends keenly interested in the possibilities, built at Hipperholme, in Yorkshire, “ a colony of 44 semi-detached houses at a density of less than 12 to the acre, each containing a living-room, two bedrooms; bathroom, larder and scullery, letting some at 10s weekly and others at 11s, inclusive. Each house was let before its construction was completed, a fact which shows that such houses can be built and that there is a definite need for them.” Sir Enoch proceeded to argue that the difficulty of finance should be overcome by a Government guarantee of the difference between the total cost of construction and the amourlt which building societies feel justified in advancing. Under the housing scheme of the Preston (Lancs.) Corporation houses have been erected which are let at from 6s 4d to 10s 6d per week. They are wired for all purposes—lighting, cooking, heating and washing. Of the building of flats, especially in London, there would appear to be no end; rents range from £650 per annum to 8s per week. The one-time British prejudice against the flat died almost in its infancy. Powell House in Hackney has nearly 200 flats of varying sizes. “ Kitchens and bathrooms are tiled and each kitchen has a glazed sink and draining board, a clothes drying rack, a dresser, a ventilated larder and a gas cooker.”. Similar accommodation is provided in Basil House, also in the East End. in 21 flats letting from 8s to 16s per week. The line drawn between the flat and the single-room tenements in apartment houses, particularly in the Dominion, is often exceedingly fine. People rent a furnished bedsitting room with a tiny kitchenette and speak of their “ flat.” Probably the high rents charged for flats of a superior type have invested the word with a glamour which appeals to that modicum of snobbishness which seems almost universal. Professor Reilly, formerly lecturer on architecture at Livernool University, tells us that “ a single-room flat does not, of course, just mean a single room. It means a room with every possible adjunct in the way of bathroom, kitchenette, sleeping recess and fitted furniture. It means, indeed, a complete machine for living—living, that is to say, in the modern way, with few possessions, but with the greatest possible ease in a day when the personal service rendered by one human being to another is rightly reduced to a minimum.” Flats are increasingly popular in New Zealand also. In Christchurch several buildings containing four flats have been erectpd and speedily found tenants. Experience in other centres has been similar. Vastly improved designs spell comfort, convenience, less housework, and a reasonable degree of privacy. The use of good insulating material goes a long way towards eliminating possible annoyance from other tenants, and, if suchvfmportant matters as ventilation, light and sunshine are successfully dealt with, objections the flat have slight basis. • Unless very generously subsidised by our Government, it would not be possible to provide suitable small houses for couples with young children. The alternative would seem to be two-storeyed dwellings divided into four flats, two on each floor. Even then Government help would be essential. Each flat should consist of three rooms and a kitchenette; an open air balcony should be included in the design. The “ garden patch,” providing play-space for children and a drying ground for clothes, would be used in common. If aspect were studied wisely, and a decent space separated the buildings, the “ garden patch ” should catch all the sunshine available. The providing of ample .pace for such purposes should present no difficulty in this country. Indeed, a prominent British architect, Sir Raymond Unwin, affirms that even in London there is no necessity for crowding people into huge blocks of drab and dismal tenements, with many rooms to which sunshine can never penetrate at anv season of the year. It is due, he declares, to absence of reasonable planning. “ Every family in e world,” he says, “ --ould be housed in a cottage dwelling at 10 to .e acre in the single island of Great Britain. The population of England and Wales, including the 4,500,000 at present living in the County of London, could be housed in like manner outside that county area and within the Greater L mdon region, and there wo Id still be over 100 square miles left for open spaces; and the whole of the county of London would be available for public and business buildings.” The importance of wise town planning could hardly be epitomised in a more impressive fashion if a volume were filled in the attempt Flats such as indicated above would not only be popular with mothers but would go far in the making of child life happier There is no better method of teaching a child to “ give and take,” to practise unselfishness and self-discipline, than to turn him loose with others of his kind. For the otherwise lonely and therefore almost surely discontented, fretful child f he presence in the building of at least three or four other children would be a boon; it would also relieve the mother of almost constant irritation and worry whilst engaged in her daily home duties. The small amount of work required to keep th common garden patch in order would fall lightly upon the four husbands, and would not be comparable for instance, with that involved by the maintenance of individual small gardens in which heroic efforts are made to raise a few flowers, vegetables for the family’s use. and. in a few cases, fruit. Highly valuable as such efforts may be from a health point of view, the business or working men who find pleasure in battling with snails, slugs, insects and blights after a strenuous day in office, shop or factory are in a minority Against these ever-active enemies it is difficult to achieve results, and the amateur gardener is likely to argue: “ Why should I bother to grow a few sickly, inferior blooms when our beautiful parks and reserves (of which I am part owner) produce masses of glorious flowers and shrubs for my delectation, or nurse some

stunted, blighted vegetables when I can buy better at the shops and probably for less cost? >