THE HOUSING QUESTION 
29 
Again, Sir Alfred Mond on 19th May, 1921, when 
meeting a deputation of the larger Local Authorities, 
remarked :— 
" In regard to houses, as with everything else, it is not what 
people want, but what they can pay for. . . . 
“ If you have these houses, have you the people to come and 
rent and live in them ? " 
Whereupon Alderman Symonds, Chairman of the 
Housing Committee of Manchester, felt it necessary 
to ask the Minister whether the Government had 
altered its policy of “ Homes for Heroes " into " Homes 
for Heroes who can pay for them ! 
The Minister does not appear to have replied. 
Why is it that Ministers of State do not take the 
trouble to read the regulations which their own 
Departments draw up ? Or is it that they do read 
them but would rather other people did not know 
about them ? 
The financial regulations, formulated by the Minister 
of Health, after the passing of the Housing and Town 
Planning Act of 1919, approved by the Treasury, 
and laid on the table of the House of Commons and by 
it endorsed, provide that the Local Authority in first 
fixing the rents under an assisted scheme shall have 
regard to :— 
{a) The rents obtaining in the locality for houses for 
the working classes. 
(6) Any increase in the rent, authorised under the 
Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest, etc.. 
Act.