REDUCING DISPARITY IN RENTS 161 



condition and accommodation. This is what we must 

 aim at. To exclude the private builders' assistance 

 and competition for many years to come would be a 

 deplorable result. We must not, however, ignore the 

 fact, already stated, that at first the disparity of the 

 rents will make considerable difficulties in regard to 

 wages, and if a means could be devised of reducing 

 this disparity within a certain period time would be 

 given for natural economic conditions to assert 

 themselves. 



We think there is a way. We have come to the 

 conclusion that the State must bear a further charge 

 than the bonus already mentioned, but only for a 

 comparatively short period. If the new State-pro- 

 vided houses were let on an extending scale of rent, 

 rising, say, by Qd. a week per year, the change would 

 be gradual, and the disparity would in all probability 

 never be felt. They might be let at 3s. 6d. the first 

 year, 45. the second, and so on up to 65. 6d. a week 

 in the seventh year. 



The rental finance of each cottage, after the State 

 had wiped off the extra cost of building, would read 

 as f oUows : 



Interest and Repayment on the Annuity £ s. d. 

 System at 5 per cent, for sixty years 

 = £5 58. S^d. on £210 . . . 11 1 11^ 



Sundries : Repairs, Insurance, Rent Col- 

 lection, Rates, etc. . . . .4 110^ 



Reserve Balance : accruing from seventh 

 year, and used as interest and capital 

 repayment of amount deferred during 

 first six years (see p. 162). . .150 



£16 18 

 (= 68. 6d. a week) 



