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