THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

29
Again,  Sir  Alfred  Mond  on  19th  May,  1921,  when
meeting  a  deputation  of  the  larger  Local  Authorities,
remarked  :—
"  In  regard  to  houses,  as  with  everything  else,  it  is  not  what
people  want,  but  what  they  can  pay  for.  .  .  .
“  If  you  have  these  houses,  have  you  the  people  to  come  and
rent  and  live  in  them  ?  "
Whereupon  Alderman  Symonds,  Chairman  of  the
Housing  Committee  of  Manchester,  felt  it  necessary
to  ask  the  Minister  whether  the  Government  had
altered  its  policy  of  “  Homes  for  Heroes  "  into  "  Homes
for  Heroes  who  can  pay  for  them  !
The  Minister  does  not  appear  to  have  replied.
Why  is  it  that  Ministers  of  State  do  not  take  the
trouble  to  read  the  regulations  which  their  own
Departments  draw  up  ?  Or  is  it  that  they  do  read
them  but  would  rather  other  people  did  not  know
about  them  ?
The  financial  regulations,  formulated  by  the  Minister
of  Health,  after  the  passing  of  the  Housing  and  Town
Planning  Act  of  1919,  approved  by  the  Treasury,
and  laid  on  the  table  of  the  House  of  Commons  and  by
it  endorsed,  provide  that  the  Local  Authority  in  first
fixing  the  rents  under  an  assisted  scheme  shall  have
regard  to  :—
{a)  The  rents  obtaining  in  the  locality  for  houses  for
the  working  classes.
(6)  Any  increase  in  the  rent,  authorised  under  the
Increase  of  Rent  and  Mortgage  Interest,  etc..
Act.