The Farm-Labourer's Cottage The announcement in the King's speech that
measures will be taken to improve the housing of the agricultural worker is given precision by a recommendation of the Central Advisory Committee on Rural Housing. The Committee recommends that two subsidies be paid, one to Rural Councils for five years, and one to private persons over a period of ao years, which will enable a sufficient number of houses for farm-workers to be built and let at a rent of 3s. a week. The Labour Government in 1931 passed an Act embodying similar proposals, which was suspended by the present Government on grounds of economy ; and after six years the measure is certainly still more needed. The Committee's conclusions are unavoidable ; but they give a depressing picture of the agricultural industry. The maximum rent which can be expected of rural workers is 3s. a week ; and the Committee says that " the rates of wages now prevailing in agriculture do not permit the ordinary agricultural worker to pay the economic rent of the type of house he requires." This in spite of the extensive artificial assistance the farmer gets in the form of subsidies, tariffs and quotas.
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