THE HOUSING PROBLEM
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have followed with great and increasing interest the articles and correspondence on the housing problem published in the Spectator. By devoting so much space and giving such wide publicity to the subject you are doing an important service to the community. I am always struck, when reading either articles or the resulting correspondence, however, by the fact that none of your contributors, great though their experience undoubtedly is, seem to realize how financially profitable is the process of " reconditioning " structurally sound property which might otherwise be classed as "slum."
Even Sir J. Tudor Walters, whose knowledge and experience is beyond all doubt, seemed to me to underestimate this factor when, writing on the subject of" reconditioning" in his able article on "Housing Policy and the Slums" in last week's Spectator, he mentioned "difficulties . . . that can only be overcome by legislation," and by way of illustration declared that if some landlords "had the means and were willing to carry out these improvements, there are always a few who are not prepared to co-operate in such schemes, either by lack of the will or the money to do so."
In my opinion the diffibulty could be overcome without even the assistance of a State Housing Loan—though such a loan would certainly be to the good—if only it were generally known how profitable " reconditioning " is to the landlord as well as to the tenant. Few people lack the will to make money, and those who lack capital could easily find it for a venture at once so humane and so profitable. In every case in which I have " reconditioned " property and subjected it to proper management—an important factor which Sir Tudor Walters rightly stressed—I have been able to effect substantial reductions of rentals which have added to the benefits gained by the tenants.
adance-sheets of various companies under my control dealing with this class of property clearly show that a very substantial profit does accrue during the process of " recon- ditioning " and in spite of reductions cf rent. I should be very pleased to produce these balance-sheets for the last financial year to any interested person—to illustrate my point—for obvious reasons I do not send them to you for publication.—
I am, Sir, &c., CLAUDE M. LEIGIL 4 Gloucester Gate, N.W.1.
[This letter is one of the most encouraging which has yet reached us on the housing question.—En. Spectator.]
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