The second reading of the Housing of the Working Classes
Bill was moved by Sir R. Baker in the Commons yesterday week. He attributed the aggravation of the housing difficulty to the Budget of 1909, which checked building; to Old Age Pensions, which induced old people to go on living in their houses; to the rise of rates in towns, which drove large factories into the country and displaced agricultural labourers by artisans who could pay better rents ; and to the demand for week-end cottages among the upper and middle classes. The clauses of importance in the Bill were those giving local authorities power to amend by-laws, which gave the Public Works Loan Commissioners power to make loans for housing under the Bill on the same terms as thobe to local authorities under section 3 of the Act of 1909, and which provided for grants-in-aid in urban and rural areas, not to exceed £500,000 a year for each, to make up four-fifths of the deficiency which a local authority might have on its housing scheme.
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