Rebuilding Britain eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 198 pages of information about Rebuilding Britain.

Rebuilding Britain eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 198 pages of information about Rebuilding Britain.
of labour unrest; the prices charged for any kind of shelter have been enormous; in some cases the same bed is occupied by one set of people immediately the prior occupants have gone to work, and “the bed is never even cold.”  The overcrowding of agricultural labourers and their families in miserable cottages, often out of repair and letting in the rain, has long been a scandal.  Something has been done by benevolent landowners, who build cottages which they let on terms which bring little return for the money spent on them; but it is quite impossible to rely either on the working of the law of supply and demand or on private benevolence for meeting the difficulty.  Strong and immediate action by the State is needed.  Adequate powers should be given to local authorities, and pressure put upon them, if needed, to ensure that such powers are exercised.  Such action is already being taken, and compulsory powers to acquire land will be given.  In assessing compensation, the great urban landowner who has done nothing to contribute to the growth of the town or to promote its industries, ought not to receive the full value of the land, as enhanced by the necessary expansion of the town and thereby converted into building land, with an added amount for compulsory purchase.  The manner in which the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act has been worked has added enormously to the burden of most great public undertakings.  The compensation awarded has often been outrageous, and the expense incurred in assessing it one of the grossest scandals.  It would be easy to give numerous instances from actual experience.

But there is not only need for more accommodation, but also for more attractive accommodation.  There is no reason why the home of a human family should as a rule be, as it is in most of the towns in England at present, a hideous object.  What has been done at Port Sunlight, at Bournville and other places shows that, by proper forethought and wise expenditure, small houses which it is a pleasure instead of a pain to look upon, can be provided.  Another good example of what can be done may be seen in the change effected in the residences for the poorer classes made on the property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at Walworth in South London.  What is now a pleasant exception ought to be a regular rule.  Means ought also to be taken to ensure that urban workers should have the opportunity of obtaining an allotment, if not adjoining, at least within reasonable distance of their homes, where they may grow fruit and vegetables and enjoy what is, after all, one of the greatest of the quiet pleasures of life, watching the growth of the plants which they have cultivated, and enjoying the products.

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Rebuilding Britain from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.