SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— F. 353 



Friday, September 5. 



Sir John Mann, K.B.E. — Some Neglected Aspects of the Housing Problem. 



The paper does not attempt to describe Slum Conditions or deal with statistics of 

 overcrowding and its results, nor does it deal with post-war efforts to improve 

 conditions by legislative and voluntary means. It submits for discussion notes on some 

 aspects of the Housing Problem^which the writer (from many years' practical touch 

 with the question) thinks have received far from adequate attention. 



Management. — Mathew Arnold contended that ' conduct is three-fourths of life ' 

 and certainly the failure of many landlords of small houses to do their duty as well as 

 the behaviour of many tenants in the use of their houses, is responsible for three-fourths 

 of the difficulties in decently housing working people. Conduct counts for more than 

 construction ; good habits are as important as good habitations ; wise management 

 will do more for housing than costly capital expenditure. The acceptance of rent for 

 a small dwelling involves a continuing duty on the landlord to see that his property is 

 occupied without danger to the health and comfort of his tenants and their neighbours. 

 This continuing duty of a landlord who sells Shelter distinguishes his function from that 

 of the sellers of Food or Clothing who have no responsibility for the use made of the 

 goods sold. 



As small houses deteriorate, their ownership tends to drift into the hands of ignorant, 

 and at times unscrupulous, landlords. Generally the worse the property, the worse the 

 landlord. The landlord has immense and most valuable power over his tenants — a 

 power which has not been sufSciently exercised for good and is too often completely 

 neglected. But rent restrictions at present paralyse the landlord's powers. These 

 restrictions will be removed, probably gradually : as they are removed the control of 

 tenants' use of their houses will again become possible and should be enforced by the 

 Health Authorities, both directly and indirectly through the landlords, who will no 

 longer have an excuse for not overtaking arrears of repairs. 



Landlords and tenants alike require to be educated, and it may be added, also 

 many Local Authorities. This educative process must take place through an aroused 

 public opinion, bringing pressure to bear upon the Authorities to enforce their powers, 

 and also by the encouragement of firm, wise and sympathetic methods of management, 

 including those originated many years ago by Miss Octavia Hill. Some details will 

 be given of these methods and of their striking success and growing importance. 



Simpler Standards. — Good management will ensure that the best use is made of 

 existing houses, but by itself it cannot relieve overcrowding which can only be over- 

 come by providing additional houses. 



The majority of the slum dwellers, variously estimated at from 70 per cent, to 

 90 per cent., are decent, hard-working people, doing their best to be clean and orderly, 

 but too often with little chance of success. They respond wonderfully to improved 

 conditions. Unfortunately only a relatively trifling proportion of those who can 

 afford the rents plus expenses of working at a distance from their homes, succeed in 

 becoming tenants of new subsidised houses with their admirable amenities. The very 

 large number of those decent people who do not so succeed and are fated to remain in 

 the slums, along with the much smaller number who are less deserving or whose 

 conduct is erratic, are the crux of the housing problem. The number of these unfor- 

 tunates is so great that the nation cannot afford to pay subsidies to re-house them all, 

 even if they were all suitable for immediate transfer straight from the squalid slums. 



It is suggested that supreme attempts must be made to meet such cases partly bj' 

 more active reconditioning on the one hand, and on the other hand by a distinctly new 

 departure in housing policy — the provision of new types of houses of simpler standard, 

 to come ' midway ' between the unregenerate slums and the well-equipped modern 

 houses — to act as it were as stepping-stones from the slums. 



The present standard for new houses, most admirable in itself, is beyond what the 

 nation can afford at present, and even when reduced by subsidy is still beyond the 

 reach of the low-paid workers. Building is a ' sheltered ' industry and its present scale 

 of costs involves rents beyond the reach of those in ' unsheltered ' occupations. The 

 building subsidies operate to keep down the general wage scale. 



It is recognised that the reduction in standard which is advocated will be unpopular 

 but it will hasten building and its drawbacks should be minimised, if not fully compen- 

 sated, by improved methods of management by owners and better supervision by 

 Local Authorities. 



1930 A A 



