PART  IV
The  Main  Indictment  against  the  Government
The  working  classes,  the  men  who  fought  and  worked
for  their  country  in  the  war,  and  every  elector  of  Great
Britain,  should  concentrate  their  forces  in  order  to
drive  home  the  main  indictment  against  this  Coalition
Government.  That  indictment  is  that  they  have
stopped  housing,  left  the  poor  in  their  slums  and
misery,  increased  to  an  intense  degree  the  unemployment ­
  and  suffering  in  the  country,  and  have  broken
faith  with  the  voters  who,  on  the  strength  of  their
promises  of  homes  for  heroes,  returned  them  to  power
in  1918.
The  Government  say  they  are  not  guilty  of  these
things.  What  then  are  the  facts  ?
The  1919  Housing  Act  laid  a  statutory  duty  upon
each  Local  Authority  to  investigate  and  report  its
housing  needs,  and  to  carry  into  effect  a  housing  scheme
equal  to  meeting  those  needs.  It  is  written  in  black
and  white  in  the  Act.  It  is  also  written  in  black  and
white  in  the  Act  and  in  its  financial  regulations  (which
were  drawn  up  by  the  Ministry  of  Health  and  approved
by  the  Treasury  and  the  House  of  Commons)  that  any
“  loss"  on  these  schemes,  new  houses  and  slum
clearance  alike,  should  be  paid  for  out  of  the  taxes,
after  the  Local  Authority  had  contributed  a  penny
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