1920. < 



Agricultural Housing. 



1215 



number of empty municipal cottages in a village near his land 

 which are to be let at an uneconomic rent, either he is able to 

 let his farm at a comparatively high rent without having to 

 put capital into it by building cottages, as he had to build 

 stables, byres, etc., or the farmer is relieved of the necessity 

 of paying a sufficient wage to the workers to enable them to 

 pay an economic rent. Here, if he gets an uneconomically 

 rented house, it is the taxpayer and the ratepayer who are 

 subsidising the labourer. It is important to notice this 

 distinction. In cases (i) and (2) it is the private individual 

 who is concerned. In case (3) it is the pubHc. Whatever 

 arguments there may be in favour of the farmer or the land- 

 owner subsidising wages in the form of reduced rents, there 

 can be no argument for the pubhc doing so. 



We are, therefore, faced with this fact, that all agricultural 

 rents, where the houses are in good condition and have good 

 accommodation, must go up, and, together with the initial 

 rents for new houses built by local authorities, must be much 

 higher than the figure customary in pre-war days. Reference 

 to Note C below will show the sort of minimum rent which 

 will have to be charged at the beginning if we are to get an 

 economic rent later. On cottages costing £525 to £750, which 

 are probably low figures, and assuming that one-third of the 

 cost will be wiped off by the State grant, the economic rent 

 to be charged later wiU vary up from at least los. to 15s. 

 The cost is abnormally high now and I am afraid that we shall 

 never get to pre-war costs, but I hope that when we arrive at 

 the normal post-war conditions the present cost will have 

 dropped by about one- third. This should be in about six or 

 seven years. Meanwhile the Government will wipe off one- 

 third of the present cost of building. That will be the 

 contribution of the Treasury to meet the situation created by 

 the War. That leaves the actual minimum figure on which an 

 economic rent must be obtained as from £^y^ to £500, so that 

 a rent of los. Sd. to 15s. ^d. per week, is the lowest economic 

 rent to be hoped for in 1927 when we have normal 

 conditions. 



A fixed minimum of ys. has been suggested as an initial rent 

 for new iwal cottages, but war experience has shown that a 

 minimum tends to become a maximum, and such a low figure 

 would be quite inadequate for industrial or semi-industrial 

 districts. This is a serious objection to a cast-iron minimum 

 which seems quite reasonable in itself. 



