42

THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

no  evidence  that  prices  at  the  time  of  contract  included  any  excessive ­
  margin  for  profit.  There  is  on  the  other  hand  evidence
that  the  profit  being  obtained  is  not  unreasonable."
What  were  the  Committee  doing  ?  It  included
technical  men  like  Sir  James  Carmichael  (a  prominent
builder  and  formerly  Director  General  of  Housing),
Mr.  W.  H.  Nicholls,  another  very  well-known  building
contractor  in  the  west,  and  Mr.  Walker  Smith,  Director
of  Housing,  at  that  time,  at  the  Ministry.  These  men
knew  the  fact  of  the  sudden  drop  in  tenders  in  March,
1921,  and  its  implication.
One  wonders  if  this  Committee  had  ever  heard  of
the  Devizes  Case.  That  town  and  the  neighbouring
rural  districts  were  the  victims  of  local  contractors,
whose  ideas  on  prices  ran  to  about  £200  a  house  more
than  any  other  builders  in  the  south-west  for  similar
houses.
In  a  case  like  this  the  Office  of  Works  could  have
been  and  should  have  been  set  to  work  to  break  the
ring.  But  the  vested  interests  in  the  House  of  Commons
and  elsewhere  prevented  this,  and  to-day  not  a  house
has  been  begun  in  or  around  Devizes.
And  Devizes  does  not  stand  alone.  In  scores,
perhaps  hundreds,  of  places,  building  has  been  held  up
for  a  long  time,  or  altogether,  by  the  greed  of  local
contractors  and  their  power  of  keeping  the  ring.
It  may  be  added  that  the  Labour  representatives,
Messrs.  Barron  and  Shanks,  as  well  as  Sir  Thomas
Robinson,  M.B.,  dissented  from  the  Committee’s
Report,  which  is  undoubtedly  to  be  the  basis  of  any
new  policy  under  the  present  Minister