6o

THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

That  Local  Authorities,  which  say  they  do  not
want  Houses,  know  best,  and  should  be  left  alone

Let  us  consider  the  former  statement.  It  all  depends  bi
on  what  you  mean  by  "  suffice.”  Private  enterprise  it
has  to  its  "  credit  ”  many  notable  achievements.  be
Houses,  40  or  50  to  an  acre.  Seventy  thousand  backto-back
  houses  in  Leeds.  An  England  flooded  out  with  Gi
two-bedroom  cottages,  whose  families  have  to  sleep  nc
three  or  more  in  a  small  bedroom.  Long  rows  of  se
mean  streets,  where  the  front  doors  open  on  to  the  dc
pavement  and  two-year  old  children  play  on  the  bi
doorstep  and  risk  their  lives  in  the  road.  Back  ext  en-  ot
sions  which  deprive  the  main  body  of  the  house  of  0
air  and  light;  tiny  paved  yards  or  a  wretched  patch  so
of  useless  ground  serving  only  as  a  waste-heap.  Party-  ai
walls  which  it  is  dangerous  to  lean  up  against.  Dark  it
stairs  and  small  windows,  and  rooms  low,  small  and  01
ill-ventilated.  No  doubt  there  are  a  lot  of  people  in  T
England  who  think  this  sort  of  thing  has  "  sufficed  ”  bi
for  the  working  classes.  But  the  working  classes  do  cc
not  think  so.  ai
It  is  the  peculiar  glory  of  private  building  enterprise  p;
that  it  has  been  responsible  for  95  per  cent,  of  these
“  homes  for  the  people  ”—"  brick  boxes  with  slate
lids  ”  as  John  Burns  once  called  them.  cl
Let  us  apply  another  test.  How  would  it  have  done  ti
to  have  left  to  private  enterprise,  after  the  war,  the  h
task  of  meeting  the  housing  needs  of  the  country  ?  si