The Surveyors' Institution has published, at Great George Street, Westminster,
the Report of its Housing Committee on " the factors . . . mainly instrumental in checking the creation
of houses for the working.classes" before and since the outbreak of war. The cost of land is found to he immaterial, but the in- creasing cost of building, the'rise in the rate of interest, the growing burden of local rates, and, still more, the uncertainty caused by recent legislation have had a cumulative effect in diverting capital to more profitable and less hazardous industries than that of the builder of cottages in town or country. The town.planning clauses of the Act of 1909 were admirably conceived, but the Committee points out that, when an area is made the subject of a town.planning scheme which is indefinit-ly delayed, that area is virtually closed to the would-be builder. Nearly two hundred thousand acres are thus " sterilized " through the failure of Local Authorities to complete their schemes. The Committee holds that the new duties imposed on property by the Finance Act of 1910 had a disastrous effect on the building industry, mainly because the Act frightene4 and bewildered investors. It suggests that the Incre- ment Value and Reversion Duties should not apply to working- men's houses, and that the Undeveloped Land Duty should be repealed. To encourage private enterpr:se in housing, the Com- mittee recommends that builders, including landowners in the country, should be enabled to obtain loans on the same terms as those given to Local Authorities. Where landowners decline to build cottages that are needed, they should, the Committee says, be compelled to sell sites at the market price. The State must, it thinks, help local bodies to provide houses for the very poor by giving a substantial grant-in-aid. Obsolete by-laws should be revised, and the use of local materials and methods should be encouraged. • The Report is lucid and bovines like and deserves careful reading, for the housing problem is acute, and will have to he faced in the immediate future.
Previous page
