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SPECIAL ARTICLES

THE HOUSING BILL

ITS MERITS AND DEFECTS

BY LORD BALFOUR OF BURLEIGH

THERE is no question as to the good intentionwhich animates the new Housing Bill or as to thovast scope of its proposals ; it aims at nothing lessthan the complete abolition of overcrowding by theprovision of a separate house for every family, andit is probable that no more far-reaching domesticlegislation than Subsection (1) of the first clause ofthis Bill has ever been comprised in so few words.It is laid down in 11 lines that it shall be the dutyof every local authority to ascertain by inspectionthe extent of overcrowding in their area, and " unlessthey are satisfied that the required number of newhouses will be otherwise provided, to prepare andsubmit to the Minister proposals for the provisionthereof." This survey and the establishment of astandard of overcrowding are the two really goodthings in the Bill. The survey will provide for thefirst time reliable data on which to base compre-hensive plans and should have been carried out

long ago. Incidentally the hope may be expressedthat the information obtained will be checked andamplified by holding a census in 1936 which is likelyto be somewhere near the peak point of our population.

OVERCROWDING

The definition of overcrowding laid down in Clause 2is necessarily a complicated one and will require verycareful examination ; as it stands it will give riseto anomalies in certain cases. ’While it is not a

high standard, it may be claimed that it is higherthan that of two persons per room laid down by theRegistrar-General, and it must be borne in mindthat the formula prescribes not the number of occu-pants which is to be considered desirable, but onlythat which it is to be an offence to exceed. Over-

crowding is at present merely a matter of by-laws,in most places non-existent, applicable only to" houses let in lodgings

" and frequently unenforced.The prescription of a national standard, applicableto every house in individual private occupation,as well as of the tenement type, to exceed whichwill be a crime, represents a great advance. Clause 3creates, from a date to be appointed, the new offenceof overcrowding both ’for occupier and landlord,and provides that no offence will have been com-mitted by the occupier until suitable alternativeaccommodation shall have been offered to him andrefused. Clauses 4 and 5 provide for a large degreeof elasticity in administration, and Clauses 6 to 11set up the administrative machinery and place theresponsibility for running it on the local authorities.

THE NEW REDEVELOPMENT AREAS

Clauses 12 to 18 are concerned with the new.redevelopment areas.’ This part of the Bill, withClause 19 which gives power to a local authoritycompulsorily to acquire working-class houses for recon-ditioning, is the part which corresponds most closelyto the proposals put forward by the Moyne Committee.An area is to be declared a redevelopment area if,of 50 or more houses, at least one-half are over-

crowded, or so arranged as to be congested, or unfitfor human habitation and incapable of being renderedfit at reasonable expense. The area partakes there-

fore of the nature of the improvement area of the1930 Act, and procedure by way of redevelopmentarea is evidently intended to replace improvementarea procedure, as the relative provisions of the1930 Act are repealed. But there is this greatdifference, that whilst in an improvement area thecost of repairing and decrowding their own propertyfalls on the owners of the houses, the new Bill pro-vides for the compulsory acquisition of the redevelop-ment area by the local authority. The compensationto be paid will be market value, subject to deductionsfor illegal user or bad repair, as defined in Part II.of the Third Schedule to the 1930 Act-viz., on thebasis now applicable to houses marked blue in aclearance area. This is the very procedure whichwas considered by the Moyne Committee and rejected,in respect of the acquisition of property for

reconditioning, on the triple ground that itwould be likely to provide excessive compensation,that it would nevertheless be likely to inflict hardshipson small owners, and that it would be slow and rela-tively expensive. The local authority is to replanthe area, making provision for working-class houses,for streets, and for open spaces. The Bill makes noreference to factories, workshops, and shops, whichare presumably to be outside the scope of the

redevelopment. The obligation of the local authorityis to rehouse the working-class population of the areaeither within the area or on additional land outsidethe area acquired for that purpose. In London thelocal authority for overcrowding is, broadly speaking,to be the metropolitan borough council, and for

redevelopment the London County Council, and theremay be delegation of their powers of redevelopmentby the latter to the former in agreed cases. The

duty is laid on the London County Council of pro-viding the additional accommodation necessary torelieve overcrowding and which it may not be possiblefor the metropolitan boroughs to provide withintheir own areas. In general it appears probable thatthe cost of redevelopment, except of very smallareas, will be so great as to render the provisionvery likely to remain inoperative, and meantime suchlocal authorities as are declaring improvement areasare to be deprived of that method of dealing withunsatisfactory property.

SUBSIDY ARRANGEMENTS

Leaving aside Part II. of the Bill for the moment,Part III. contains the new subsidy arrangements,the principle of which is probably the worst featureof the Bill. A subsidy for the relief of overcrowdingin congested areas is provided on a sliding scalerising in proportion to the value of the site on whichthe new flats are to be built. Where the developedcost of the site per acre is from S1500 up to 4000the Exchequer subsidy is to be f:6 a year per flatfor 40 years, rising by JE1 for each £ 1000 of site valueper acre up to f:6000, and thereafter by El for each2000 of site value per acre with no stated upwardlimit whatever ; an additional contribution will belaid on the rates of 50 per cent. of the Exchequergrant. There is also a subsidy for cottages not

exceeding Y5 a year for a maximum period of 20years, carrying with it a like 50 per cent. rates con-tribution, and there is a new special provision inrespect of the agricultural population in rural areas.The sliding scale subsidy will reinforce the powerfulinfluences which create the existing vicious spiralof land values in congested areas ; to introduce iti s to reverse the decentralising tendency of our housing

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policy since the war, and this at the very momentwhen housing policy abroad and in the United Statesis beginning to show signs of abandoning the erectionof centrally situated high buildings in favour ofdecentralisation. The policy of centralisationinvolves disastrous consequences in the future to ourlarge towns. Land values are measured by theincome which can be earned by virtue of the occupa-tion of land. These values are increased in everyway by the presence of population. Populationprovides labour for industry, and its presence attractsindustry. Reciprocally, the presence of industryattracts population. Moreover, the presence of

population provides a convenient and proximatemarket for production. The policy of centralisationinvolves the certainty under economic law thatland values will rise. The granting of a subsidyon a sliding scale commensurate with the heightof the land value will stimulate this process byincreasing demand still further. It is true that manypeople want to be in the middle of towns in order tobe near their work ; but, conversely, many businessesare set up in the middle of towns in order to be neartheir workpeople. The only way to relieve thepressure is by planned decentralisation. If congestionat the centre is to be maintained and intensified,the prospect is indeed a terrifying one.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND HOUSE MANAGEMENT

COMMISSION

Returning now to Part II. of the Bill this provides forthe appointment by the Minister of a

" Central HousingAdvisory Committee " and " Housing ManagementCommissions," and deals with " Housing Associa-tions." This part of the Bill is presumably the answerto those who have pressed on the Government theneed for a coherent national housing plan, looking10 or 15 years ahead, and based on something morecomprehensive than the uncoordinated programmesof individual local authorities; a plan which wouldmake wise provision in advance and check a possiblerise in the price of building materials or undueincrease in labour costs ; which would effectivelycombine the needs of housing with those of town

planning and of transport ; which would coordinateand encourage research into every varied aspect ofthe questions to be studied, and which would callin to effective aid of the local authorities the immense

potential force which is latent in the Public UtilitySociety movement. The Bill provides that a

Central Housing Advisory Committee shall advisethe Minister on questions which he may refer to it.The only sample of such questions given in this Billis whether the Minister may allow temporary over-crowding to continue in houses of few rooms or

exceptional floor area ! The committee will no doubtenjoy exactly the standing of any other committee

having no executive responsibility. House manage-ment commissions may be set up to perform thefunctions implied by the name in cases where thisappears to the local authority to be expedient. Localauthorities in the main are proud of their housingestates, and are unlikely to wish to part with themanagement of them. As for the housing associa-tions, which seems to be a rather better name forwhat has hitherto been usually called the publicutility societies, the Bill does nothing to improvetheir status; the possible scope of their work is

slightly widened, in that the widened powers oflocal authorities may still be delegated to them,but no effective new help is given them with theirfinance, and they are left utterly dependent on thegoodwill of the local authorities. The foreshadowed

Central Housing Association may he " recognised " by

the Minister, it is true, and even given a grant foroffice expenses, but it is to have no statutory rights orpowers-in particular no power to obtain or recom-mend the grant of cheap finance for constituentassociations-and must remain a bloodless wraith,very different from and far inferior to the robustand powerful Central Public Utility Council recom.mended by the Moyne Committee.

COMPENSATION

Part IV. of the Bill deals with unification of con.ditions affecting local authorities’ houses, and Part V.with redevelopment and reconditioning by privateowners. Part VI. contains miscellaneous provisions,including some useful amendments of existing housinglaw based on practical experience, but specialattention must be drawn to Clauses 58 and 59, whichmake three changes in the law relating to compensa.tion and will alter existing practice in two importantrespects. Clause 58, Subsection (1) will remove thepossibility that an owner whose sound property,included in a clearance area merely because of itsbad neighbours, might receive site value only.Administrative practice has, it is believed, alwayssecured this result, at least under the present Govern-ment, and it is right that law and practice shouldbe made to coincide. Subsection (2) of Clause 58will abolish the much abused reduction factor.Clause 59 involves a regrettable departure from theestablished principle of compensation at site valueonly in slum clearance. It is an attempt to distinguishbetween the owner who has done something to keephis property in repair and the owner who has doneless or nothing at all. While the latter will continueto receive bare site value, the former is to receivein addition a payment not exceeding one and a

half times the rateable value. Admittedly in bothcases the property will have been rightly condemnedas being unfit for human habitation, and once morehard cases are going to make bad law. The abolitionof the reduction factor may be easier to justify intheory, but in that case also the existing practicehas been the law for many years, and much propertyhas changed hands with knowledge on both sides ofits effects. The combined effect of these two clauseswill be to slow up the five years’ slum clearanceprogramme and render it more expensive. The

pressing need for the abolition of the reductionfactor would not have arisen but for the emphasislaid on building working-class houses on sites intrinsi-cally too valuable for that purpose in the effort tohouse the workers near their work. The right wayto do this is to get both the factories and their workersout to new areas, as recommended by Mr. NevilleChamberlain’s Unhealthy Areas Committee 14 yearsago, and so check the menacing growth of Londonand other large cities. Under this Bill every 10,000flats on the expensive sites are to cost the Exchequer;ClOO,000 per annum for 40 years. Adding the ratescontribution, that is a capital sum of 31 millionpounds of public money to be used to pin downsome 45,000 people in the congested areas; andmany tens of thousands of flats will be built ifthe aim of this Bill is to be accomplished. Wouldit not be better, before it is too late, to use even afraction of these vast sums to secure planned decen-tralisation of population and of industry 7 On thoselines the high site values in the centre could.safelybe left to look after themselves.

CONCLUSION

The real criterion by which the new Bill must bejudged is by the answer to the vital question : What

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will it do to produce. the million or more additionalhouses which arc to reHeve overcrowding,at low weekly in the places where they areneeded and on a far-sighted national plan? I

believe the true answer to that question to be ex

tremely disappointing and the implications of theBill to be profoundly disturbing.

MEDICINE AND THE LAW

Blood Test of Motorist for Alcohol

WHEN it has been suggested that scientific bloodtests would assist the law courts in deciding whethermotorists have been driving their cars while underthe influence of drink, it has been necessary to pointout that the police and the magistrates are powerlessto compel the use of such a method. It is interestingto learn, from proceedings before the Greenwichpolice-court last week, that a pioneer defendant hashimself voluntarily asked the police surgeon to takea test of his blood. Evidence of the result of theanalysis indicated that the blood specimen con-

tained 125 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 cubic centi-metres of blood, the proportion being approximately0’15 per cent. by volume. The case stands com-

mitted for trial where the value of this evidence willdoubtless be considered. Inspired by the publicityof the case, motorists who are charged with drivingwhile under the influence of alcohol may make ahabit of demanding a blood test ; if so, the time maycome when anyone who omits to volunteer a specimenfor analysis may thereby prejudice his position. At

present the law would be slow to regard such a refusalas an admission of guilt or as corroboration of thecharge. The courts will presumably consider thevariations of alcoholic idiosyncrasy. Will an accusedperson offer his blood for analysis in the witness-boxbefore and after drinking a prescribed quantity inthe presence of the court, with parallel tests of hisdriving capacity ? "? Will the candidates for a drivinglicence, who at present must give written details ofhealth and eyesight and must pass tests of com-

petence, be some day obliged to furnish also theiralcoholic index figures for comparison with an

established norm ? ‘?

"Fresh Evidence " in Affiliation ProceedingsIn Bachelor 1’. Smith, an affiliation case in which

there was some talk of voluntary blood tests of

paternity, Mr. Smith vigorously denied that he wasthe father of Miss Bachelor’s child, and went toprison several times because he refused to pay 10s.a week under the order of the Chatham justices. In

February last Miss Bachelor was convicted of perjuryin having falsely sworn, during the affiliation pro-ceedings, that she had not been out with a certainman since May, 1930. Mr. Smith then applied tothe justices for revocation of the order to pay 10s. aweek. The justices granted his application, butMiss Bachelor contended that this could be doneonly on " fresh evidence," and that there was nofresh evidence. The Divisional Court has now heldthat her conviction for perjury was " fresh evidence "whereon the justices could revoke their previousorder as to payments. The leading case on thispoint is R. v. Copestake (1926), where the putativefather was willing to admit paternity on the assump-tion that the child was a seven months’ child. Heafterwards learned from the nnrso and doctor whoattended the girl’s confinement that it was a full-

time child. This put the act of intercourse twomonths earlier, at a date which he had not admitted.The Court of Appeal found it necessary to emphasisea curious distinction made by the statutes. TheAct gave the magistrates power to revoke a bastardyorder so far as it related to periodical payments,but not so far as it related to an adjudication ofpaternity. Lord Hanworth said that, had thejustices been entitled to reopen the question ofpaternity, the appellant’s new information wouldhave been " fresh evidence" for them to consider.As will be seen, the law is in a queer state and isripe for alteration.

Eyestrain as Accident

In a Grimsby workmen’s compensation case theapplicant’s statements of eyestrain have been heldto amount to an " accident " within the Act. He

complained that after three years’ work with theGrimsby Gas Co. he began to use a pyrometer toread high temperatures in a combustion chamber,and that his left eye became defective. He said heconsulted an ophthalmic surgeon who told him atiny burn was caused every time he used the pyro-meter. A medical witness stated that the man’sleft eye had only 6/24 vision by reason of the useof the pyrometer which was dangerous. As usualthere was a conflict of medical evidence, but thejudge made an award as stated, with costs. Thegas company’s foreman said he had taken tempera-tures in the combustion chamber for 22 years without

injury to his eyes.

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED

JAN. 12TH, 1935

Notifications.—The following cases of infectiousdisease were notified during the week : Small-pox, 0 ;scarlet fever, 2747 ; diphtheria, 1973 ; entericfever, 21 ; acute pneumonia (primary or influenzal),943 ; puerperal fever, 38 ; puerperal pyrexia, 97 ;cerebro-spinal fever, 19 ; acute poliomyelitis, 7 ;acute polio-encephalitis, 2 ; encephalitis lethargica, 6 ;dysentery, 37 ; ophthalmia neonatorum, 76. Nocase of cholera, plague, or typhus fever was notifiedduring the week.The number of cases in the Infectious Hospitals of the London

County Council on Jan. 21st-22nd was as follows : Small-pox,0 under treatment, 0 under observation ; scarlet fever, 1381 ;diphtheria, 2264 ; measles, 173 ; whooping-cough, 295 ; puerperalfever, 18 mothers (plus 5 babies) ; encephalitis lethargica,208; poliomyelitis, 6; "other diseases," 293. At St. Margaret’sHospital there were 17 babies (plus 11 mothers) with ophthalmianeonatorum.

Deaths.—In 121 great towns, including London,there was no death from small-pox, 1 (0) from enteric.fever, 10 (0) from measles, 4 (0) from scarlet fever,9 (3) from whooping-cough, 66 (8) from diphtheria,49 (15) from diarrhoea and enteritis under two yearsand 59 (9) from influenza. The figures in parenthesesare those for London itself.

Salford reported the only fatal case of enteric fever. Therewere 4 deaths from diphtheria at Liverpool, St. Helens, andSheffield, 3 at Willesden. 2 each at Southampton, Halifax,Huddersfield, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Newcastle-upon-Tyne,Salford, Birmingham, Plymouth, and Merthyr Tydfil.

The number of stillbirths notified during the weekwas 273 (corresponding to a rate of 43 per 1000 totalbirths), including 47 in London.

BATH ORTHOPÆDIC HOSPITAL.—Captain RonaldWills has given f:7000 to Bath and Wessex Children Ortho-pædic Hospital. Ho and his father, Mr. Stanley Wills, havebetween them given E24,000 to this institution.