Town-Planning on a National Scale A weak spot in the
Government's housing programmes at present is that they make no provision for large-scale planning. The greater the activity which they may promote in housing and re-housing, the greater will be the confusion unless the Government adopts some such measure as is recommended by the Committee on Slum Clearance and Replanning appointed by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Now is the time when towns are to be re-developed, when new industries are being established, and new opportunities present themselves for the transference of workers and their re-settlement. Is this vast national movement, which is taking place or is about to take place partly through spontaneous indiVidual action and partly through the housing activities of local authorities, to be determined in a higgledy-piggledy, hole-and-corner manner by scores of unrelated local programmes, or in relation to a national plan ? The Committee urge that a national executive authority should be brought into being, with powers to plan on a national scale and to insist on conformity with its plans. Such an authority, of course, should work in close association with a National Housing Corporation when and if such a body is brought into being.
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