How to Get the Houses
SIR. Mr. Tarran, in his letter in the Spectato• of January 12th, hit the nail right on the head when he said that the building requirements of the country were not 200,000 or even 300,000 houses a year, but at least 400,000. We have not the men or the material or the time to achieve that last figure with brickwork alone, much as we should like to do so. We can provide the people with the houses they need only by adopting the most modern, stream-lined, factory-production methods at our disposal.
There is hardly an industry in the country which does not adopt mass-production methods to step-up its output, if there is a national need for its goods. In fact the Government insists that all should do so. The building industry would do the same if only the absurd, ill-based criticism of modern methods could be stifled. There will be, for all time, a tremendous demand for brick-built structures, so craftsmen need have no fear that they will become redundant.
A comparison might be made between the building and motor indus- tries. No one would decry the immense amount of skill and craftsman- ship required in making a Rolls-Royce car, or suggest that such cars are not needed. But the average man cannot afford a Rolls-Royce, though he manages to find, in a mass-produced vehicle, a car which will satisfactorily meet his needs and his pocket. In the building industry the position is much the same. The Rolls-Royce of building is the brick structure, which calls for all the craftsmanship that can be put into it. Such craftsmanship, as Mr. Tarran says, should, in the main, be reserved for public buildings and the like, although I cannot altogether agree with some of his percentages. What the homeless want is a well- built house with as many modern amenities as they can afford. And if these houses can be produced by methods very similar to those employed for making popular and reliable cars, does it matter ? The crying need will have been net with sound, sanitary and satisfactory houses.
In officialese some of these houses would be called " sub-standard," but this would only apply to those in which the floor-space might fall short of that which is considered to be desirable. Tell the owner of an Austin Seven or a Morris Minor that his car is "sub-standard" and hear what he has to say about such a remark! Today the country, as a whole, has a purse which can just afford a mass-produced article, and if a•e can only meet the ever-increasing demand for houses by employing a constant flow of mass-production ideas and methods, let us get on with the job. We are not getting anything done by talking and " planning."
I have been a craftsman in the building industry all my long working life. If my political activities came to an end tomorrow I should be happy and proud to go back to my craft, assisting in building houses by any new technique, as advocated by Mr. Tarran.—Yours faithfully,
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