Shorter Notice
Scotland's Housing and Planning Problems. By Sir William Whyte. (Dent. 6d.)
PROFESSOR MACKINTOSH, who holds the chair of Preventive Medicine at Glasgow, is concerned in this lucid and well-produced pamphlet more with possibilities than with facts—how to make Scots positively healthy rather than how to cure their diseases. This postulates a new outlook in the community, as well as improved administration ; so, naturally and rightly, Dr. Mackintosh discusses many subjects beyond the strictly " medical "—such as the need for freer access to mountains, the importance of trained women house-property- managers, the importance of good manners at school meals. The problem of health comes back again and again to the problem of housing, and Sir William Whyte makes it painfully clear in the second pamphlet under review how great Scotland's needs are, in the country as well as the big towns. He wants to make sure that these needs will be met as soon, and as effectively, as possible after the war ends ; so his message is, plan now. Three points he makes are the influence of the Scottish rating system on rents ; the necessity, in areas like the Clyde Valley, of regional rather than local governments ; and the desirability of building houses with an estimated life of 4o rather than 6o years. This last point is cer- tainly most controversial, for it conflicts with the soundest native building traditions ; and indeed in many ways the author seems to write on the assumption that Scotland is simply a distinctive region of Britain rather than a country with a surviving national tradition, not only in building houses but in the life lived in these houses.
[We regret that "Finance and Investment" has to be omitted on account of abnormal pressure on space.]
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