BUILDING SOCIETIES.
The feature at the Annual Conference of Building Societies held at Harrogate was the very fine address delivered last week by Sir Harold Bellman, who this year is Chairman of the National Association of Building Societies. No one is, of course, a greater authority on the work of Building Societies than Sir Harold Bellman, and during the course of his address he gave some remarkable figures with regard to the pro- gress of Building Societies during 1933. It appears that during that year the total of share-investors and depositors advanced by over 6 per cent. to 2,379,302, while the-number of borrowers rose by 9.4 per cent. to 950,715 and the share capital and deposits revealed an aggregate increase for the year of nearly 7 per cent. at 1476,985,000. A fresh record was also established in the matter of advances, the' total being no less than 1103,192,893, or an increase of over 25 per cent. compared wick,, the previous year. The total assets rose by 6.8 per cent- to over 2501,000,000, which con- stitutes a fresh record. Moreover, with regard to the actual work of building Sir Harold Bellman stated that the number of houses built in England and Wales during the year ending March 31st last was 266,622, compared with 200,496 in the previous year. Of last year's total 209,836 were built without State assistance, though, 1,967 houses were built by 'Local Authorities.
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