THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

45

houses  was  being  hopelessly  retarded  through  rich
clients  and  contractors  luring  away  labour  for  their
private  work,  by  offering  higher  wages,  and  by  other
methods  of  cold-shouldering  housing  schemes  (not
least  of  which  was  the  influence  of  builders  and  their
friends  elected  on  Local  Authorities).  An  Act  known
as  the  Housing  (Additional  Powers)  Act  was  passed
later  in  1919,  a  section  (No.  5)  of  which  empowered
Local  Authorities  to  prohibit  private  building  if  it
could  be  shewn  to  be  interfering  with  their  housing
scheme.  This  section  was  a  total  failure,  for  three
reasons  :—
(1)  Local  Authorities  were  unwilling  to  work  it.
Anyone  who  knew  how  local  interests  are  favoured  by
local  Councillors  could  have  foreseen  how  impossible
it  would  be  to  expect  men  to  take  the  bread  out  of  the
mouths  of  their  friends  whom  they  met  every  day  in
the  street.
(2)  The  Act  only  allowed  Authorities  to  move
against  private  building  within  their  own  area.  But
the  common  trouble  was  that  a  big  firm  in  a  neighbouring
area  lured  labour  away.  The  Law  forgot  this—or
intended  to  forget  it.
(3)  The  Section  allowed  an  appeal  to  the  Ministry
if  a  prohibition  order  were  made  by  a  Local  Authority,
but  the  wording  of  the  Section  was  so  badly  drawn
that  these  appeals  were  practically  always  successful.
Why  the  Section  was  so  worded  that  a  coach  and  six
could  be  drawn  through  it,  it  would  be  interesting  to
know.  Perhaps  the  big  business  interests  in  the  present
House  of  Commons  could  say.