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85 
PART III 
The Gorernment’s Record for Truth and Justice 
An account will be given in this chapter of a variety 
of important matters relating to Housing, wherein the 
Government and more particularly its present Minister 
of Health, have, either by evasion or deliberately, 
deceived the House of Commons and the country ; 
and wherein they have shewn wilful bias. 
(i) The purchase of existing houses as dwellings for the 
working classes. 
Section 12 (1) of the Housing and Town Planning 
Act, 1919, gives powers to a Local Authority to acquire 
existing houses for the use of the working classes, 
and to alter, enlarge, repair or improve them so as to 
render them in all respects fit for habitation. 
There were three main classes of dwellings which 
this section had in view. In the first place large empty 
houses, which could be turned into working-class flats. 
In the second place, smaller houses which were being 
deliberately kept empty by landlords to obtain a high 
purchase price. In the third place, “ week-end 
cottages " by the seaside or in attractive rural scenery, 
which were tenanted and occasionally occupied by 
well-to-do people for week-ends, and were kept empty 
between whiles.