12

PREFACE

the  Local  Authorities,  at  least  a  further  200,000  have
become  necessary.  It  is  indisputable  therefore  that
the  nation  needs  a  million  houses.  This  is  clearly  not
an  exaggerated  estimate  when  one  realises  that  in
England  and  Wales  alone,  there  are  nearly  a  million
dwellings  consisting  of  two  rooms  or  less.
Mr.  Bonar  Law  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George,  in  their  joint
manifesto  of  1918,  declared  that  “  one  of  the  first
tasks  of  the  Government  will  be  to  deal  on  broad  and
comprehensive  lines  with  the  Housing  of  the  People,
which  during  the  war  has  fallen  so  sadly  into  arrears,
and  upon  which  the  well-being  of  the  nation  so  largely
depends.”
The  history  of  the  past  four  years  is  a  tragic  story
of  the  betrayal  of  one  pledge  after  another.  But  there
is  no  more  dishonourable  episode  in  the  life  of  the  joint
Unionist  and  National  Liberal  Government  than  the
sacrifice  of  the  housing  policy  which  it  was  pledged  to
carry  out.  It  commenced  with  a  programme  which  was
inadequate  to  fulfil  the  lavish  promises  made  to  the
electors,  and  in  a  panic  of  "  economy  ”  virtually  closed
down  its  programme.  The  net  result  of  the  "  broad
and  comprehensive  "  lines  of  policy  promised  by  Mr.
Bonar  Law  and  Mr.  Lloyd  George  was  the  provision
of  161,442  new  houses  by  the  end  of  June  last,  and
35,971  houses  under  construction.  The  total  supply
of  new  houses  is  less  than  sufficient  to  meet  the  normal
needs  of  the  years  since  the  war.  As  the  leeway  of  the
war  period  has  not  been  made  up,  it  is  obvious  that  the
housing  situation  to-day  is  worse  than  it  was  before  the