136 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



at the Ministry of Health by the high cost of building that 

 we are stimulating experiments with new methods of building 

 and rediscovering old methods. We hope that in steel and 

 concrete or pise'-de-terre we shall be able to build more cheaply 

 in many districts. In some areas 100 to 150 may be saved 

 by using these new or old methods in place of brick. Then also 

 the Government have put aside 15,000,000 as a subsidy, and 

 we hope that landowners will come forward and join in providing 

 houses with the inducement of the 150 subsidy for each house 

 built within the next twelve months. We believe there is a nucleus 

 of building labour in some rural districts which will not go to the 

 towns but which could be brought in to help in the emergency. 

 The effect of these high costs must be reflected in the rents of 

 new houses, but before discussing rents I want to ask you to 

 bear in mind a few facts which are apt to be put aside or for- 

 gotten. In the first place , a large number of agricultural labourers, 

 say 300,000 to 400,000, do not live in tied houses, and large 

 numbers of these are paying more in semi-suburban districts 

 than the customary rural rent. This brings me to the maximum 

 deduction from wages which may be allowed for a tied house, 

 a matter which I urge upon your immediate consideration. Under 

 the present system, are you going to get equal treatment as 

 between the municipal and landowner builder ? Can you say 

 to the former that 75. is a fair rent, but to the landowner that 

 he can only charge 35. for a similar adjacent house ? That will 

 have to be faced. Or, further, are you going to say to the local 

 authorities that they should charge a different rent for similar 

 houses, according to the occupation of the tenant ? Local 

 authorities will have to provide houses for agricultural, industrial, 

 rural, and semi-urban workers. Are they to charge the same rent 

 to each class or are they to vary it according to the occupation 

 of the tenant ? They obviously could not limit their rents in 

 semi-urban areas to 35. weekly ; but it is in fact clear that the 

 rent of new houses must be much above the pre-war level. 

 At the present moment agricultural labourers working on the 

 same farm are often receiving different cash wages because 

 they are charged a different rent, and as the deduction or pay- 

 ment for rent differs so the actual cash left to the labourer 

 varies. Again, if more cottages had been available before the 

 war they would in many instances have been let to agricultural 

 labourers at more than 35. rental. Lastly, if policemen, post- 

 men, and other rural workers, are going to live in these new 

 houses, the older and cheaper cottages will be available for the 

 agricultural workers at a lower rental, although I do not want 

 to limit agricultural labourers to these houses. We may, I 

 think, safely say then that 35. was neither the universal nor 

 the maximum rent paid by the agricultural labourer before the 



