Houses for Rural Workers The third stage in the Government's
long housing programme will soon, it is hoped, get under way. The first was that associated with slum clearance ; the second, overcrowding; and there now remains the urgent task of tackling rural housing. The necessary legislation has been passed. The Exchequer subsidy provides most of the necessary money, the normal contributions from the County Council and the District Council being only ix a year each for forty years. But just as it was necessary to stir up enthusiasm among the local authorities before slum clearance could be seriously undertaken, so now with the rural authorities. Last Tuesday Mr. Walter Elliot addressed the fourth of a series of confer- ences he has been holding with rural district councils. It is for them to take the initiative both in regard to new building and in the encouragement of re-conditioning. It should now be possible to provide cottages to let at 3s. to 4s. a week exclusive of rates in rural districts. Such dwellings are urgently needed. It is no use embarking on schemes for the revival of agriculture unless there are homes fit for the agri- cultural workers to live in.
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