Renovated Houses
Lord Salisbury's detailed and instructive letter in The Times on the subject of reconditioning slum property should concentrate attention on an aspect of the housing problem in which hopeful possibilities are inherent. There is a vast amount of slum property which never ought to be reconditioned. Demolition and replacement by new houses or flats is the only treatment possible in such cases. But where the shell of the building is sound, internal reconstruction, with the instalment of modern sanitation and other amenities, is perfectly feasible, and, according to Lord Salisbury, who has reconditioned on a large scale on his Liverpool property, the cost is only some £90 a house instead of the £300 which rebuilding would involve. It would he wise to provide some stimulus to reconditioning by allowing the landlord, even in con- trolled houses, to make a proportionate (but no more than proportionate) increase in rent. But even- this small increase might be enough to put a house out of the reach of the lowest-paid woraers. The Government's plans still leave them wholly unprovided for. -
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