THE NEW TOWNS

13

tracting has been excessive and expensive. Secondly, only one or two of
the New Towns have experimented seriously with direct labour schemes—
in Aycliffe the scheme has done well—though semi-permanent undertakings
such as these might have provided a useful field for the employment of a
fairly large direct labour force. The experience of the New Towns, indeed,
seems to underline the need for a reorganisation of the building industry,
including the introduction of new construction methods.! 1t should be added
that, in the last year, building costs seem to have levelled off and, in some
respects, they have shown a slight fall. This may be due as much to an
increase in productivity as to other causes. Hemel Hempstead reported
that, for 1953-54, the volume of building per man year was £2,100 against
a figure of £1,300 in 1951.

The Rent Problem

From the tenant's point of view, the level of rents has been the most
pressing problem. Protest meetings and many resolutions from community
organisations have claimed that rents are unduly high in relation to earnings;
that sickness for any period of time makes the rent burden intolerable; and
that both the method of financing New Towns and the increases in interest
rates have meant that tenants have had to carry more than their fair share
of the total cost. Part of this dissatisfaction has sprung from the fact that
the more recent a house, the higher its rent and/or the lower its construction
 standards are likely to be. Though, for a variety of reasons, strict
comparisons are difficult to make, the following is an example from the
three neighbourhoods of Hemel Hempstead in the order in which they
have been built.

2
3
A

House with
Bedrooms
Bedrooms .
Bedrooms

Range of Weekly Rents in Shillings
Adeyfield Bennetts End Chaulden
20 to 29 27.5 to 31 27.5 to 29.5
22 to 31.5 30 to 33.5 25 to 32.25
24.5 to 37.5 33.75 to 34.5 34

This table shows quite clearly the upward trend. While recognising the
difficulties that have faced the Corporation, anyone who compares the
standard of the Adeyfield houses with those of Chaulden will realise that the
spread in rents would have been much wider had the original quality and
amenities been preserved.

What the Tenants think
As an illustration of the residents’ opinions on rent, and one that is
broadly confirmed by my own experience, there is a survey of a sample of
five hundred households recently conducted in ‘Silkin Newton,” an unspecified
 New Town. This survey (summarised in the Manchester Guardian

1 See, for example, proposals in Policy for the Building Industry by Kenneth
Albert, Fabian Research Series 170.