28 NOVEMBER 1925, Page 3

The Ministry of Health has issued statistics of house-building in

England for the year ending last Michaelmas. They confirm what we wrote on the subject a few weeks ago. The year has seen a " record " output. They give the output of 1905, the year of the Cheap Cot- tages Exhibition, as 129,000 houses, the record until now. We take that number to be adequate for the annual need. In the past year the output has been over 159,000, and thus we have at last begun to reduce the shortage which has accumulated through the War ever since Mr. Lloyd George frightened would-be builders by his financial pro- posals of 1909. The shortage is so great that 80,000 houses are a comparatively small matter, but to have turned the corner is a great encouragement. * * * *