THE HOUSING QUESTION 
87 
by owners, Sir Alfred Mond argued against such a 
course on the explicit ground that Local Authorities 
under Section 12 (1) of the 19x9 Act, could purchase 
such houses compulsorily. He remarked :—“ None of 
the Members have dealt with the question that under 
Section 12 of the Housing Act, 1919, a Local Authority 
can buy and retain houses compulsorily.” 
Actions, however, speak louder than words. Con 
version of large houses into flats has practically every 
where been a failure. Many Local Authorities must 
take their share of blame for this, as the policy has been 
widely resisted by them on the grounds that the 
neighbouring middle-class residents would object to 
the working classes coming to live near them, and 
that the value of the adjacent property would be 
depreciated. But the Government had the powers 
given to them by Parliament of compelling the con 
version of these innumerable empty houses and have 
done nothing in the matter. The houses are there and 
the poor are homeless. 
But the Government’s record has been worse than 
this. When Local Authorities requested the Ministry 
to be allowed to buy and convert such empty houses 
or week-end cottages, the Ministry have replied that 
they would only allow this course to be adopted if the 
Local Authority paid out of its rates the net cost of 
purchase and conversion. This is a direct contra 
diction of the promise given in the quotation at the 
beginning of this account, and, indeed, of the pro 
visions of the Act, which in Section 7 states that all