Letters to the Editor
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The mist suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week " paragraphs.—Ed. SP.gcrATom.] LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND BUILDING SOCIETIES [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—If Local Authorities are to economize, may I suggest one way by which substantial savings can be made in muni- cipal budgets ? As matters now stand, municipal housing schemes will soon be more or less a thing of the past. The Minister of Health's recently announced decision disallowing the compulsory acquisition of 1,300 acres of land at Wythen- shawe by the Manchester Corporation seems to indicate pretty conclusively that the Government has decided, for the time being at any rate, to check municipal building. But the building of houses must continue. Why shouldn't Local Authorities encourage Building Societies to fill the gap ?
There is an opportunity here for municipalities to co-operate far more closely than in the past with Building Societies. Building Societies have the experience and the resources to do much of what is necessary. By utilizing them, Local Authorities should be able to secure effective economies in local expenditure out of public funds. Where Local Authori- ties are anxious to encourage the building of houses they can obtain authority to give guarantees to prospective purchasers who have not themgelves sufficient capital to go direct to Building Societies. Where this scheme is already in operation it has worked admirably, and an extension of it should mean both the speeding up of house building and a reduction of cost to Local Authorities.
Relations between Local Authorities and Building Societies are happily of the most cordial, and at a time when many of the former are the objects of a good deal of criticism, much of it ill-informed and undeserved, I must say that those of them which have come within my personal experience seem to me to be carrying out their duties under the greatest difficulties in a manner that is at once efficient and public-spirited.—I am, Sir, &c., H. L. NATHAN.
1 Finsbury Square, E.C. 2.
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