112

THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

Such  maintenance  after  sale  is,  of  course,  impossible
and  he  must  have  known  it.
In  1920,  the  Government  proposed  to  increase  the
erection  of  working-class  houses  by  giving  a  subsidy
to  private  builders.  What  was  the  result  ?  By  the
Minister’s  admission  at  least  70  per  cent,  of  these  houses
are  now  occupied  by  well-to-do  people.
The  pressure  put  on  Local  Authorities  by  the  Treasury ­
  to  increase  rent  has,  where  it  has  been  given  way
to,  had  just  the  same  effect.  The  working  classes  go
out  and  the  middle  classes  take  the  houses.  If  the
present  Government  can  bring  it  about,  the  great
Housing  of  the  Working  Classes  Act  of  1919  will  have
had  as  its  result  a  subsidy  to  the  middle  classes  or  to
speculative  builders  who  can  buy  back  the  subsidised
house  at  half  the  price  for  which  they  or  their  friends
built  them.
On  20th  July,  1921,  the  Minister  told  the  House  of
Commons  that  27,000  acres  had  been  acquired  throughout ­
  England  and  Wales  for  housing  schemes,  of  which
only  20,000  were  needed  for  the  schemes  he  was  prepared ­
  to  approve.  Much  of  the  remaining  7,000  acres
have  been  fully  developed  with  roads  and  sewers  and
are  now  to  be  left  derelict,  the  grass  growing  over  the
land  and  roads  alike.  Hardly  a  policy  for  a  Government
professing  economy  to  follow.
While  members  of  the  Government  were  making  the
protestations  of  innocence  which  we  have  recorded
above,  their  Minister  of  Health  was  hard  at  work
“  stopping  the  train.”  In  January,  1921,  further