BUILDING OR RECONSTRUCTIONP
[TO sec EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."3
SIX,—That the housing of the working classes is inadequate, both in town and country, goes without saying. But is it not a mistake to assume that the deficiency is in numbers rather than in quality t Looal Authorities are exhorted, or rather compelled under pain of dismissal, to adopt building sohemes, but no power is given them to alter and repair. We hear much about the need of building 300,000 or even (the latest estimate) 1,700,000 now cottages, but little about adapting and improving the cottages which are already built.
I do not pretend to understand the requirements of the towns—neither, by the way, do officials in or from London understand the needs of the country. But in country districts I venture to say that before the war the number of houses was found sufficient. There were no families homeless; in most parishes there were cottages vacant, and very rarely was one cottage inhabited by more than one family. During the war we have lost 000,000 men, actual or potential householders. It would seem therefore that there is a surplus rather than a deficiency of cottages. But if the quantity is adequate the quality is not Overcrowding is rife, not the crowding of several families in one tenement, but the herding of large families into two or three rooms. Many cottages are quite unfit for habitation—the evil has increased enormously during the war, since no repairs have been possible. Some are ruinous. But by far the greater part could be made habitable, and many could be enlarged. It is not building that is needed .o much as alteration,' and repairs. And the latter project has one great advantage. It may cost almost as much to alter a dwelling as to build a, new one, but the material required is vastly lees. And the lack of material is to-day a matter for serious consideration. The brickfields of England are not sufficient to produce the number of bricks required even for the least ambitions programme of cottage building. I tun much mistaken (and I have had some experience) if they would not suffice for reconstruction.
Landlords should be compelled to put their houses in order. If they will not, or cannot, do this, the State should step in and do so. There need be no compensation for untenantable buildings. Not until existing cottages have been put into repair, and where necessary enlarged, should Local Authorities be asked to build. The need is not for more, but for better, cottages. Only the Local Authorities must be made alive to the necessity of changing their ideas as to what is required for "decent accommodation." The pre-war standard will not [We agree that attention should be paid to the question of repairing on a large scale. But in our opinion Mr. Morgan is entirely wrong as to the numbers of cottages needed. If the polity begun by the Corn Production Act succeeds the expau- sion of rural life will be very great indeed.—En. Spectator.]
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