Housing and Building -The return issued by the Ministry of
health on Tuesday throws some interesting light on the progress of building activity. Thus, in the year ended September 30th, the total number of houses built reached the record number of 339,538. The number of houses built by private enterprise fell, however, below the number built last year, which was itself a record. This decline, which was foreseen, and is likely to increase in the next two years, is more than offset by municipal building. If, however, municipal building is to continue to compensate for the decline, a higher limit to overcrowding will be required than that of the Act of 1935. Sir Kingsley Wood, the Minister of Health, has issued an Order fixing July 1st, 1937, as the appointed day when 159 local authorities must bring into operation the overcrowding provisions of the 1935 Act ; during 1937 96 per cent. of the local authorities will have enforced them. But municipalities, like private enterprise, will be faced with the problems of rising costs of commodities and of labour ; if this results in a failure to provide houses at a sufficiently low rent, housing schemes will fail to attain their object ; it seems that some provision, perhaps by a larger subsidy, must be made against this danger.
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