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In 1921, Sir Alfred Mond repealed Section 5 of the 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