The Report of the Housing Committee, issued on Friday week,
takes a serious view of the situation. The Report. attributes the undoubted house famine to the negligence of Rural Councils in administering the law; to bad landlords, some of Whom are practically of the same class as the tenants, and even are members of the Councils; and to some slackness on the part of the Local Government Board. The Committee bolds that the County Councils should administer the Sanitary and Housing Acts, because they could build and borrow on a larger scale, and could pay for the whole time of medical and other inspectors. The Committee• strongly endorses the principle that the rural labonrer should have land attached to his cottage, supports ,compulsory pnrchase of land for housing, condemns the tied-cottage system, and recommends that the labourer should pay his rent to the landlord, not the farmer. Accepting the view that cottages will not pay at the present rental, the Committee recommends iia, the bouncils, or Building Societies formed for the purpose, should be able to borrow more cheaply and at longer periods of redemption, the Local Government Board to supply model plans. It is admitted by the Report that cottages in pairs can be erected for about 2150, or perhaps £120, each ; but "no rent under 2e. Oct will pay, even at 2 per cent. interest on loans." .
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