THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, June 19, 1942. REBUILDING ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24946, 19 June 1942, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Friday, June 19, 1942. REBUILDING ENGLAND

A report on the replanning of Southampton, mentioned in the cabled news last week, states a conclusion that will doubtless be arrived at by investigators in every heavily bombed urban area in England. The destruction caused by enemy attack, it says, has provided an opportunity to effect changes in the use of land which would otherwise be impossible because of the number of interests affected and the cost of disturbing them. The problem of the use to which land may be' put m the "gigantic task of post-war reconstruction must be inseparable from that envisaged in the transfer of land, formerly privately held, to the ownership of the State or of local bodies. Already, as has been suggested, the question of ownership is impinging upon plans for the rebuilding of London. A great central airport surrounded by park-lands is contemplated,, it is stated, and Government officials who are making the preliminary surveys are going about their work quietly, "because it is not desired to concentrate the attention of speculators on the land's value." There should be the smallest risk of the interference with State planning by speculators in building sites, since the Government can, and no doubt will, arm itself with powers adequate to cope with any such emergency. A Defence Regulation is already in force to prevent speculation in agricultural land, and planning control in the 'cities will be similarly strengthened. What is wanted in, London and.: throughout the country, according to one opinion, is a system into which, the element of compulsion must enter if necessary, with equitable provision for the compensation- of private land owners. And that is what will almost certainly emerge in all urban centres where destruction has been on a large scale and where rebuilding is destined to proceed in accordance with a closelyknit national policy. Already the first requirements of such a policy are beginning to be understood. The intention appears to be to concentrate responsibility for reconstruction in the Ministry of Works and Planning. Royal Commissions and special committees have inquired, and are still inquiring, into separate aspects of the whole gigantic problem. The Uthwatt Committee has prepared an interim report laying down the general principles to which town and country-planning must conform and touching on the question of public control of the use of land. Lord Justice Scott's Committee on Rural Development is seeking to define the conditions which should govern "building and other constructional developments in country areas consistent with the nature of agriculture," ' with particular regard for factors affecting the well-being of rural communities and the preservation of rural amenities. The Ministry of Works now r controls all building where the cost is in excess of £IOO, as well as the distribution and use of materials. Ribbon development and the use of disfiguring advertising signs are being brought under stricter supervision, and there is a general insistence on the heed: for better standards of design in respect of all building—all of these being matters in which, it is said, the assistance of the Royal Fine Arts Commission is visualised to a greater extent than ever before. These tasks necessarily involve separate activity on a remarkable scale, but the general aim is towards co-ordination and unified control. The immensity of the problem, in its actual physical aspects, will be appreciated when it is known that a first estimate gives the number of houses to be rebuilt as 500,000. It may be larger, as has been pointed out, if they are to be built according to modern standards and the replanning is to be on satisfactory lines, " which may involve the demolition of other buildings still standing but partly weakened or remaining as an obstacle to replanning." Apart from rebuilding, repairs to existing houses will be a huge undertaking. Further need for housing and factory construction will arise out of the intention to encourage a more reasonable; balance of industrial development, which will most likely necessitate not only the shifting of plants, but also the removal and rehousing of industrial populations. The field of post-war reconstruction, in the physical sense of rebuilding, is thus seen as one of forbidding dimensions. The fact that such exploration as is necessary is well in hand-now, in the very midst of the struggle for survival, offers great assurance that reconstruction will be achieved, in the peace to follow, with a minimum of delay and confusion.