DIFFERENTIAL RENTING [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sts,—Miss Rathbone has very kindly interested herself in my brief study, which you recently published, on some aspects of children's rent allowances. Her letter raises various questions in the minds of those who are endeavouring to study the proposals sponsored by her and Mr. E. D. Simon. Would she inform the readers of the Spectator :—
ty Will allowances demolish a single insanitary house ?
(2) Who will pay for the new houses into which 2,000,000 children are to be taken by their parents ?
(3). Will a remission of 6d. a week, as at Welwyn, be sufficient to tempt parents to leave their present homes and go to a new district, leaving their older relations behind in the slums ?
(4) Which scheme of allowances does Miss Rathbone advocate ?
(5) Is she also in favour of an added dole in the form of differential rates by derating on the new estates ?
(6)- Has she considered the grave administrative objections raised both by the editor of the journal of the Garden Cities and Town-Planning Association and by directors of housing in technical journals
Finally, Miss Rathbone claims Sir Theodore Chambers as a protagonist of allowances, but on December 9th last, this gentleman wisely pointed out that
" there was great danger of the scheme of children's allowances being looked upon as a panacea for the housing problem. The whole question was so enormous that it should be attacked from every conceivable point, and this was but an infinitesimal part."
Sir Theodore's warning is opportune.—I am, Sir, &c., 53 Netherhall Gardens, N.W. 3. B. S. TOWNROE.
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