62 HOUSING 



sum of £10,300 was lent to five rural district 

 councils for this purpose. Since then down to 

 the end of July, igi2, loans to 25 councils to 

 the total amount of £95,646 had been 

 sanctioned. Out of this amount £58,886 

 belonged to the period subsequent to the 

 passing of the Housing and Town Planning 

 Act, which has been followed by a consider- 

 able increase of activity. But it is to be 

 observed that the amount of housing thus 

 accomplished is very much less than the 

 amount of unhousing under the same Act. 

 It appears from the returns that under the 

 heading of houses closed or demolished a 

 score was run up of 2,455, while houses built 

 or to be built only mustered 315. Public 

 health has beaten agriculture badly. This is 

 not all that has been done, because several 

 thousand houses have been repaired and put 

 in order ; but a deficiency of cottages is not 

 likely to be made good by pulling down eight 

 times as many as are built. 



Wages and Rent. 

 Hence recent proposals for fresh legislation. 

 Two remedies are proposed, one of which is to 

 raise agricultural wages, so that the labourer 

 can pay more rent ; the other is to provide 

 further facilities for borrowing money for 

 building. The whole difhculty is one of cost, 

 which exceeds the return that a labourer can 

 afford to pay in rent. If a landowner builds 



