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THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

stories  are  regarded  by  men  of  practical  building  experience  as
demonstrating  little  more  than  the  lack  of  real  knowledge  on  the
part  of  those  who  give  currency  to  them.”
To-day  the  output  of  labour  is  practically  at  pre-war
standard,  but  the  Government  continue  to  refuse  to
authorise  the  building  of  more  houses.
An  important  reason  for  the  lesser  output  of  building
operatives  in  1919  and  1920,  but  one  which  has  never
properly  been  allowed  for,  is  the  inadequate  production
of  materials  in  those  years.  If  stacks  of  materials  are
not  to  be  had  on  the  ground,  it  is  useless  to  expect  a
high  output.
But  let  us  get  to  the  real  cause  of  the  lack  of  progress
of  the  Housing  Schemes  of  Local  Authorities.  That
cause  was  the  private  demand  for  building  labour  after
the  war.  Two  main  factors  brought  about  this
demand:—
(1)  The  fact  that  for  five  years  no  repair  or  decoration
work  had  been  done  throughout  the  country.
(2)  The  desire  of  business  firms  to  extend  and
beautify  their  premises,  very  largely  to  escape  paying
to  the  Treasury  Excess  Profits  Tax.
So  powerful  were  these  influences  that,  so  late  as
the  end  of  1920,  only  10  per  cent,  of  the  building
labour  in  the  country  was  employed  on  working-class
houses.  Even  last  year,  after  the  slump  and  the
removal  of  the  Excess  Profits  Tax,  only  about  150,000
out  of  900,000  were  so  employed;  to-day  many  less.
Very  early  in  the  life  of  the  scheme  the  Government
were  warned  by  their  own  officials  that  the  erection  of