The Government, through the mouth of their new . Minister of
Health, have enunciated their housing policy. It should be a good one, for it has cost three Ministers to produce it. What it amounts to is practically an acceptance of the " Manchester Scheme." Hence, de- structively in Liverpool and constructively in Manchester, the-North Country has certainly shown that yesterday's. Lancashire proposal becomes to-day's Government policy. Briefly, the scheme as adopted is to give the municipalities £6 a year for twenty years for each house built and to leave them free, to expend this money in encouraging, private enterprise or in any other way they like. The scheme should work, if only some method can be found. to prevent the " rings " which control the prices of building materials from effecting a " hold-up " such as wrecked the Addison scheme. A hold-up is what the Lord Mayor of Manchester evidently fears, and ha, assures us that his municipality will immediately stop building if prices begin to climb. He spoke of the men in the building trade having " done their bit" in accepting. the wage reduction. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The men have now refused' the employers' offer by a large majority.
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