The sun., 1917-08-22
THE PROBLEM OF HOUSING THE PEG.
PIE OF ENGLAND.
Complications Financial and Sociological Mainly Due to War Conditions
and What Must Be Done to Overcome Them


Government authorities making pre-
liminary inquiries into the huge prob
lem of providing houses for the peo-
pie ,,f England have discoyered that
even before the war the housing prob
lem was imminent and would probably
have brought crisis by this time
even II there had been no war.
1t is calculated that about $4,000
houses adapted for working people
were being built annually before the
war, most Of them by private capital.
SO long ago as 1909. because Of the
campaign for higher taxes on land and
the increased public burden that was
being placed on certain kinds OF In
Yestments, there was a striking de-
crease in the amount Of building.
From then until the beginning of the
war a considerable arrearage In
housing facilities had accumulated.
The country was decidedly in bad
way already when three years ago 1t
became necessary to stop practically
all building operations.
Tho long and short Of the matter
Is that even in normal times. as a
result Of the higher land taxes, in
vestments in tenements had become
30 unattractive that private capital
could not afford to provide them
Carefully collated experience shows
that investments in this kind Of
property would not yield an average
Of per cent. and provide against
depreciation, taxes and insurance. In
asmuch as perfectly safe 4 per cent.
investments were to be found without
any possible difficulty capital was pre-
ferring them.
Only recently has It been realized
how bad the situation was before the
war. But for the awakening Of pub
lie interest in all such questions which
the war has brought matters might
have gone on from bad to worse in
definitely. The necessity for adopt
ing great public housing schemes was
already apparent to students Of the
problem as early as 1909, but the
municipal projects of this kind had
not been attended with such distin-
guished success as to encourage their
rapid expansion.
But to-day 1t is realized that II the
people are going to be kept in Eng
land at all they must be provided with
houses. Not only are there too few
houses to shelter the people but
things are complicated by the fact
that millions of people are demanding
better houses than they ever before
had. This is one of the results OF the
campaign Of education that the labor
organizations and related influences
have been carrying on. Also. it Is to
a considerable extent the result Of the
period Of increased prosperity among
the working people during the decade
before the war.
Many municipalities are planning
big housing schemes, to be entered
upon as soon as peace is made. The
Government will have to help the mu-
inequalities to finance these projects.
A recent rather startling discovery is
that the Governments credit Is not
so good now as that OF the cities. In
fact the proposition to borrow large
sums on maximum credit and lend
it to the cities has developed that
whereas tre cities can borrow money
on the joint security Of their munich
pal responsibility and the real prop
erty that is acquired for about 3h
per cent. per annum the Government
is compelled to pay per cent. This
Of course is an incident OF the fact
that the Government is heaping up