A HANDBOOK OF HOUSING. By B. S. Townroe. (Methuen
and Co. (i8. net.)
. .
LET us hope that when Mr. Neville Chamberlain lays down his task at the Ministry of Health it may be possible for a book to be written half as satisfactory as Practical Housing, in which a near relative of his gave an admirable account of work done in Birmingham before 1910 when progress stopped awl the accumulation of our housing troubles began. In the meantime, we must be content to make the best use we can of such compilations as Mr. Townroe gives us here ; a useful epitome of the Act of 192-1; passages on their special subjects written by experts employed at the Ministry ; a few pages of generalities contributed by four ex-Ministers of Health, and so on. Mr. Townroe binds these ingredients together with sensible comments -of his own, making a book which should be useful to anyone who is struggling to provide cottages, particularly the three-bedroom cottage with a floor area up to 950 square feet (not 950 cubic feet as appears by a misprint in the introduction). He deals briefly and usefully with the details of planning and construction, showing a liberally open mind on new materials, and with the much- muddled problems of the supply of labour and materials as well as of money. He also examines the principles of housing by the State, the municipality, private enterprise and com- binations of resources. Instinct and experience have taught him, as others, that private enterprise is altogether the best, but, like others, he despairs of its ability to cope unaided with the conditions of to-day. He shows, however, that it could do mach with the -help offered by t4e Housing Acts and the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act of 1899, amended
in 1923. .
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