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 unemploy 
ment 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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