LORD REITH'S CHANCE
SIR,—Writing of the appointment of a Minister of Works and Building in your issue of October 18th Mr. Clough Williams-Ellis says: "Is effective, positive town-planning possible at all while . . . private freeholds of urban land persist? That is a question that the new Minister and his advisers must face and report on pretty early in their deiberations, as, indeed, upon the private ownership of land in general." Writing on the same subject, in. your issue of October 25th, Mr. George Cadbury says: "There is only one real solution of the problem, and that is the public ownership of land," and "I see that the recently issued Report of the Royal Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population recognises the importance of this aspect of the problem, but unfortunately does not make any concrete proposals, but refers it for further investigation." Writing in The Times on November 1st, Sir Charles H. Bressey says: "The Problems of replanning . . . cannot safely be brushed aside. Time must be found for them here and now," and he pleads for the "fundamental remodelling of districts," in subservience to a master plan, the provisions of which are enforced by "a central tribunal endowed with summary powers," and he goes on to say: "Insuperable difficulty would attend such a task if deferred till after the war. . . . If we grapple resolutely with the task in these days of war, we shall be better able to face the momentous problems of peace."
The establishment of a Ministry of Works and Building has raised great hopes. What the Minister's powers will be has not yet been made public. One thing, however, is certain, and that is that the hopes his appointment have raised, are foredoomed to disappoint- ment, and his efforts are foredoomed to failure or their outcome at best to be only miserable ineffective compromises, unless there is public ownership of land in general or, at least, there are far greater powers than now exist by which the public can acquire the owner- ship of land.—Yours truly, BARRY PARKER. Norton Way, Letchworth, Hertfordshire.
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