27 JULY 1929, Page 3

Housing In the House of Commons on Monday the most

interesting speeches were those which speculated on alternatives to the ordinary subsidy. Sir Tudor Walters, for example, suggested that sound national finance, with the consequent lowering of money rates and the derating of working-class houses (as in the United States), would be satisfactory alternatives, though subsidies were, no doubt, necessary for the time being. Miss Rathbone preferred family allowances to derating. These, she said, would help to drain the slums of their excess of population. The tendency to get away from the flat- rate subsidy is significant, and we shall hear more of it.