This month the housing officials of the Ministry of Health are carefully examining the programmes which have been submitted by local authorities in all parts of the country for housing during the next five years.
The figures from the North of England are of especial interest, as they show that, in spite of the industrial depression, a determined effort is being made, irrespective of party considerations, to remedy the slum problem. The figures also reveal the magnitude of the effort which has already been made and the heavy costs imposed, not only upon this generation, but on subsequent generations, who will have to pay off our housing loans. In England and Wales alone we are now paying for municipal housing at a rate of approximately £25 a minute.
Sheffield has been building at the rate of 1,000 houses a year, and the corporation has cleared several of the unhealthy areas. The programme for the next financial year provides for the building of another 1,250 houses of the ordinary type, and 500 of a smaller and stronger type to house persons displaced from slums.
Houses at fixed rental
Of special interest are the plans that have been adopted by the Rural District Council of Rotherham with a view of keeping its debtedness as low as possible. Under the "Wheatley" Act of 1924 a Government subsidy can be given to a private builder who will build small houses to let at a fixed rental. The Rotherham Rural District Council offers an additional grant of £2 per house for a period of 40 years. Already at Wickersley 100 houses have been completed by a private builder under this method. They are said to be equal in standard to any council house in the country. The Rotherham R.D.C. estimates a saving to public funds of £5 10s. each year on each house by thus utilising private enterprise.
It must not be expected, however, that many of the slum clearance schemes will reach fruition during 1931. The task of acquiring unhealthy areas, solving the many legal and human problems involved on every site, and preparing alternative accommodation, cannot be accomplished in a few weeks. In addition local government machinery moves slowly, as schemes have first to be approved by housing committees, and then sanctioned by the main councils, and, in the majority of cases, the Ministry of Health has to be consulted on various points which arise. Accordingly, it is not expected that unemployment in the building industry will be greatly reduced by the rehousing of slum dwellers during the coming building season. It is, however, a striking fact that local authorities are facing their difficulties so courageously, and are planning ahead for a housing programme for the next five years.
Note: John Wheatley (1869-1930) was appointed Minister of Health, in Ramsay MacDonald's first Labour Government in January 1924. Wheatley's Housing Act became law in August 1924. This Act was designed to assist the local authorities in a fifteen-year programme for building two and a half million houses to be let at rents which the average working-class family could afford to pay; a national subsidy was fixed, by agreement with the local authorities, for a trial period, at £9 per house; the building trades were induced to co-operate by permitting more apprentices, and a supplementary measure to prevent profiteering in building materials was promised