The :trouble with Mr. Wheatley's scheme, however, is' that though
it is called the "Housing Charter" it provides for -the present no houses, either to let or to sell. The one thing it has achieved so far is the sending up of prices. Mr. Neville . Chamberlain's scheme, which has been extended till 1939, is the only scheme which is providing houses. , Not that the provision it _makes is anything to boast of—the truth is that everybody is beaten-by the building trade, and the most interesting and promising, experiments in the use of new materials are not allowed to yield any results worth mentioning. Even Mr. Wheatley himself admits that it will be five years before houses can be built under his scheme at the rate of 120,0013 a year. Labour speakers have boasted that more than 26,000 have been built during the year. Yes, but they were all the direct result of the Neville Chamberlain scheme. The real need is for houses now, and it remains one tthe greatest of scandals that so little should be done in the way -of-either emexgency housing or permanent housing_ while there are more than 1,000,000 men unemployed who could quite well do the work. The suffering caused by the- shortage of houses alone makes the Labour promises. at the last General Election about -ending -unemployment seem one of the grimmest comedies of recent times.
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