691 



Report on Rural Housing. 



[FEB, 



The Select Conamittee of the House of Commons to whom 



the Housing of the Working Classes Acts Amendment Bill 



was referred have issued a Special Report 



Report on (H.C, 376, price 4s. od.) reviewin^^ the 

 Rural Housing-. V / ^ , / ^ . , 



existmg law relatmg to the housmg 01 the 



working classes in rural districts, and making a number of 

 recommendations for future legislation. 



The Committee had abundant evidence put before them as to 

 the insufficiency of cottages in rural districts, and though many 

 landowners have spent considerable sums of money on the 

 erection of cottages from which no direct return is obtainable 

 one of the main reasons for the lack of accommodation is the 

 difficulty of building cottages to yield an adequate interest on 

 the outlay to the owner. But there is abundant evidence to 

 show that the difficulty of rent would be largely diminished by 

 the addition of land to the cottage. The labourers and others 

 who gave evidence before the Housing Commission of 1885 on 

 the subject stated that the men could pay higher rent and 



would be pleased to do so" if land, arable or pasture, were 

 attached to the dwellings. One witness of considerable ex- 

 perience, while admitting the difficulty of paying rent for good 

 cottages alone, said it was " easy to pay fair rent for land and 

 cottage together." He considered the two to be so necessary 

 that he declined to consider them apart. The above evidence 

 as to the great value to labourers of small plots of land to supple- 

 ment their wages has been amply confirmed by the evidence 

 received by the Committee. 



One of the amendments proposed by the Bill was to enlarge 

 tthe amount of land that may be attached to a cottage from a 

 maximum of \ acre and ^3 annual value to a maximum of 

 3 acres and £\o annual value, and the Committee consider that 

 no reform in connection with rural housing can be of any effective 

 use unless further facilities for the acquisition of land are given. 



What is primarily wanted is that the young agricultural 

 labourer should have a fair prospect of being able to progress by 

 the exercise of thrift and energy from the position of labourer to 

 that of an independent occupier. The present conditions are 

 of such a character that' any such advancement in life is 

 surrounded with the utmost difficulty. Though he may be 



