CHAPTER IV. 



THE SOLUTION OF THE COTTAGE QUESTION 



IT has been made clear in the preceding pages that the 

 rents of cottages arc only low in many rural districts 

 partly because many of them are old, insanitary, and 

 overcrowded, and partly because they often belong to the 

 employers who charge a low rent instead of paying a higher 

 wage. There is no possibility of extracting from the present 

 wage of the agricultural labourer a sufficient rent to make 

 the building of new cottages a commercial undertaking. The 

 result of this is that the natural expansion of the countryside 

 cannot, take place, and new cottages cannot be built except 

 by philanthropic landlords in exceptional cases. But new 

 cottages must be built, and rapidly, if the decline of the 

 countryside is to be arrested. Before deciding on how 

 this end can best be achieved, it is necessary to understand 

 the state of the existing law, and what the financial 

 problem is. 



§ 1. The Existing Law. 



The two principal Acts of Parliament which deal with 

 Housing are : (a) The Housing of the Labouring Classes 

 Act, 1890 ; (b) The Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909. 



The effect of the latter Act was : (a) To make it com- 

 pulsory on Local Authorities to hold an investigation of 

 all cottage property in their areas, whereas the former Act 

 made such an investigation optional ; (b) to give the L.G.B. 

 greater facilities to force the local bodies to take action than 

 had been the case heretofore ; (c) to give Local Authorities 

 greater facilities for building than under the Act of 1890.* 



* The principal sections in the H. & T.P. Act, which should be noted 

 in this connection, arc sections 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 37, 73. 



