Houses and Sites
An S.O.S. has been bent out in the form of a memorandum by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Works urging local authorities to acquire land quickly for the reception of the temporary bungalows now being manufactured to the Government's order. They are asked to have enough land for the first instalment before the end of this year. The need of dwelling places, temporary or otherwise, is very urgent, and the necessity of haste is obvious. At The same time, it is almost as necessary to exercise wise judgement in the selection of the sites for these temporary dwellings as for permanent buildings. Firstly, they are designed to last ten years, and many of them are likely to be inhabited far longer ; so the lay-out matters ; they must not be standing eye-sores for half a generation. Secondly, care must be taken to choose sites that will not be needed for permanent houses or other development work. Portal and other houses, even though temporary, must be fitted in to the general plan of each locality, and form part of it ; to spatchcock them in at a moment's notice is not going to be easy. However, by hook or by crook, provision has got to be made for them—they are all that hundreds of thousands of people will have to live in for some time to come. What we must hope is that local authorities will treat this urgent task very seriously, and realise all its implications, and call in the best planning and archi- tectural advice that they can secure to find a satisfactory way out of the difficulty. There is a point which cannot escape attention. The setting up of these bungalows will tend to fix the location of population—and before any steps have been taken to find out where the population ought to be located in relation to industry. By inaction in planning we are condemned to the necessity of determining the location of- industry without regard to the general needs of the country. Such is the lamentable consequence of the Government's delays in dealing with the Barlow and Uthwatt Reports—disorder made certain because there are no plans for order.
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