46

THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

Dr.  Addison,  who  was  the  Minister,  saw  clearly  where
the  trouble  lay,  and  in  1920  introduced  a  Bill  (the
Housing  "  Miscellaneous  Provisions  ”  Bill)  which  gave
power  to  the  central  authority  (the  Ministry,  working
through  its  Regional  Commissioners)  to  prohibit
private  building  which  interfered  with  the  erection  of
working-class  houses.  This  is  what  should  have  been
done  from  the  first.  This  Bill  also  provided  that  Local
Authorities  might  combine  together  to  prohibit  building
in  their  joint  or  respective  areas.  This  provision  would
also  have  been  of  much  value.
The  House  of  Lords  threw  this  Bill  out  and  it  was
never  revived.
In  1921,  Sir  Alfred  Mond  repealed  Section  5  of  the
“  Additional  Powers  "  Act.  Big  business  had  won,
thanks  to  their  friends  in  the  House  of  Lords  and  in  the
Coalition  Government.  This  is  by  far  the  most  potent
cause  of  the  poor  progress  made  by  the  Government
Housing  Scheme.

NOTES  ON  THE  FOREGOING,
The  following  quotation  from  the  Housing  debate
on  13th  March,  1922,  is  indicative  of  the  Minister’s
desire  to  attack  building  trade  operatives  without
ascertaining  the  facts  :—
Sir  A.  Mond  :  .  We  have  completed  already  a  relatively
small  part  of  our  176,000  houses,  and  one  reason  they  are  not
getting  finished  is  that  we  cannot  secure  the  plasterers.  I  would
like  to  read  to  the  Committee  a  letter  from  the  Deputy-Chairman