THE HOUSING AND TOWN PLANNING ACT.
[To TRX EDITOR or TEN " SrscrArron."
SIB,—The Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909, has very much to recommend it to all social reformers. The condition' of the homes of the workers must be improved as the very. first step towards improving their moral and physical con- dition. But when we go to work to use the powers given. under this Act. we find that in many instances we are bringing about litany eases, of grievous, nay intolerable, hardship I*
the district covered by the Rural District Council to which I belong there are many small owner-occupiers whose sole property is the cottage in which each lives. Through many causes, perhaps because a parent with a large family has left one member the house and nothing else, and the wages will not suffice to live on and keep a house in proper repair, or because the owner has become old, unable to work much, and therefore short of money, and for many other reasons, the houses have come under the ban of the medical officer of health. A notice is sent that unless certain extensive repairs and alterations, which could not have been enforced a few years back, are done almost at once these homes must go, and the poor owner must lose his property without one penny of compensation. Of course, one is aware that all social reform brings in its train some hardship. But this seems to be one of peculiar gravity. In most cases mortgage will not help, because the properties have already been charged, probably to tide over bad times. Can any of your readers suggest a way out ? I shall be grateful for suggestions.—I
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