not exceeding £200,000 towards the deficiency on Local Authorities' accounts for the improvement of slum areas. This annual contribution will continue for the whole term of such loans as may have to be raised by Local Authorities to defray the necessary expenditure.

PROGRESS OF HOUSING SCHEMES.

The following figures show the total number of houses (other than temporary dwellings) completed under the various schemes at the 31st March, 1922 :

By Local Authorities (excluding County Councils other than the London
County Council)

By County Councils (other than the London County Council)
By Public Utility Societies

By Private Builders

Total number of houses completed..

96,483

425

3,608

29,819

130,335

In addition to the above, 2,928 temporary dwellings have been provided by the conversion of huts and hostels.

During the year 1921-22, 100,923 houses were completed.

On the 31st March there remained 75,484 houses to be erected, under the final scheme, by Local Authorities and Public Utility Societies, and of these 52,417 had already been commenced. addition, preliminary certificates had been issued in respect of 12,295 houses to be erected by private builders.

Welwyn Garden City.-Section 7 of the Housing Act, 1921, enables the Public Works Loan Commissioners to make advances to authorised associations, up to an amount approved by the Treasury, for the development of garden cities. The Welwyn Garden City, Ltd., have been approved as an "Authorised Association," and the Public Works Loan Commissioners, on the recommendation of the Department, have agreed to advance a loan towards the expenditure to be incurred during 1922. The area to be developed is approximately four square miles, and the estimated expenditure to be incurred during 1922 on land, roads, sewerage works and water supply is £181,901. The land will be developed as a building estate on garden city lines, and will be let, on long building leases, to Local Authorities, Public Utility Societies and others. It is expected that a population of about 40,000 will eventually be housed in this area.

COST OF ASSISTED HOUSING SCHEMES.

All-in Cost per House.-The majority of the building contracts are still in progress, and accordingly it is not yet possible to give final figures of the cost of the scheme. The estimate submitted to the Committee on National Expenditure gave an average all-in cost per house of £1,100. This figure was built up from tender prices, with additions for increases in labour and material and for cost of variations since the contracts were let, and it took into account some fall in costs in respect of unfinished contracts.

The annual loss per house was estimated, in evidence given before the Committee, at £55, and the total annual loss was estimated at £10,000,000.

These estimates will require some small modification, because it has been found possible to terminate some of the more expensive contracts, and because the more recent contracts show a considerable reduction in the cost per house. Further, there has been a marked fall in rates of interest on new loans effected in recent months.

As, however, the number of houses which will be built at the lower prices is only a small proportion of the total number included in the scheme, the effect upon the average price per house will not be very great, and the latest estimates show that the total capital cost will approximate to £190,000,000, or about £1,080 a house.

Allowing for the lower rates of interest on the later loans it is estimated that the average annual loss will be something between £50 and £55 a house, and the total annual subsidy something over £9,000,000 per annum for the early years after completion of the schemes, until advantage can be taken of reborrowing the money raised on short term borrowings at a lower rate of interest. The actual amounts of the subsidies paid during 1921-22 were :

About 200 Local Authorities had not applied for payment at the end of the year.

Land. For the most part Local Authorities had already made their arrangements for the acquisition of land for housing schemes before the year under review. As indicated in previous Reports, the average price paid was £190 per acre, and this average was not affected by the comparatively few additional purchases made during the year.

Road and Sewer Works.-The average cost per house of road and sewer works showed a decrease of about 30 per cent. during the financial year. It was also found possible to effect an additional economy by some reduction of the average frontage required, so that the average cost of development fell from about £70 per house at the beginning of the year to £45 per house, or less, at the 31st March, 1922.

Cost of Houses. On the 31st March, 1922, arrangements had been made for the erection of approximately 165,000 houses. The improvement in the conditions relating to house-building which became apparent towards the end of 1920 continued throughout the whole of the year 1921--22. Tenders for the erection of houses were easier to obtain and the prices quoted were considerably lower than formerly. This tendency towards a fall in prices was accentuated by the policy of restricting approval of new contracts to areas where there was sufficient skilled labour to erect the houses contracted for within a reasonable time, and of including in such contracts only a comparatively small number of houses. The easier conditions, moreover, rendered it unnecessary to place contracts on a cost basis, or to resort so frequently as in the previous year to the system of erecting houses

by direct labour. Further, it was possible in lump sum contracts, owing to more stabilised conditions as regards the supply of materials, to arrange with advantage that tenders should be on the basis of the builder providing all materials without a provision that the contract price should vary as the prices of materials varied.

It is to be noted that while there was a fall in the prices of all principal materials, some still remain at a high level as compared with the prices ruling in 1914. The following table shows the percentage increase of the prices of certain materials at the dates mentioned as compared with those ruling in July 1914

At the end of the year the Department of Building Materials Supply was closed, though a certain amount of accounting work, etc., remains to be completed.

The downward tendency of prices for houses during the year 1921-22 is illustrated by the following statement of average tender prices for A and B type houses which were submitted in the months mentioned, and approved either in those months or subsequently :B type.

1921.

March

A type.
£

£

(The A type houses in general comprise living room, scullery, bathroom, and three bedrooms, and the figures include the cost of drains, paths, fences, etc. The B type houses have, in addition, a parlour.)

It became apparent during the course of the year that some contracts, more especially those comprising large numbers of houses, could not, for various reasons, be completed by the dates contemplated

when the contracts were made. In such cases arrangements were made where possible to curtail the contracts, and further contracts were subsequently placed in other areas where the need for houses was urgent and where conditions were favourable to rapid building. With the fall in tender prices these arrangements will result in considerable economy.

Rents. At the end of the year agreement had been reached with approximately 1,100 Local Authorities as to the rents to be charged. for the houses erected by those Authorities. It was found impossible to secure agreement with 56 Authorities, and in these cases the matter was therefore referred to the Tribunal constituted under the Local Authorities (Assisted Housing Scheme) Regulations, which consists of representatives nominated by the Minister and by Associations of Local Authorities. The Tribunal had issued awards in 20 of these cases at the 31st March.

The rents agreed (exclusive of rates) range from 4s. 6d. per week for a four-roomed house in a rural area to £1 1s. per week for a sixroomed house in a popular residential locality in the Metropolitan Area. The bulk of the rents range from 6s. to 13s. per week.

Capital Expenditure.-Approximate figures of the loans raised by Local Authorities under the State-aided housing schemes up to the end of March, 1922, are as follows :

Departmental Committee on High Cost of Building.-The Committee, under the Chairmanship of Mr. J. Stanley Holmes, M.P., which was appointed in February, 1921, to inquire into the reasons for the high cost of building working class dwellings, and to make recommendations as to any practicable measures for reducing the cost, presented their Report (Cmd. 1447) in July.

Their principal recommendations, apart from those dealing with technical points, were that a definite limit should be immediately fixed to the number of houses to be erected under the present scheme of State assistance; that in future, with a view to preventing undue inflation of costs, the market should not be overloaded in any area with more building work than could be economically undertaken by the supply of building labour available; and that all possible steps be taken to revive house building by private enterprise under normal competitive conditions.

The sale of houses erected under the Government schemes, so far as this can be effected without dispossessing existing tenants, may have a certain bearing on the general financial position. In the revised financial regulations issued in December 1919, a clause was included to encourage the sale of houses by providing that a part of any financial benefit accruing from the sale should be credited to the rates as well

as to the Exchequer subsidy. In May and August 1920, the Department issued circulars to Local Authorities (General Housing Memoranda Nos. 27 and 33) advocating the sale of houses and suggesting a scheme in detail for the purchase of houses by instalments. A certain number of Local Authorities have prepared schemes for the sale of houses, and sale prices have been approved by the Department, but few sales were actually effected during the current year.

SMALL DWELLINGS ACQUISITION ACTS, 1899 AND 1919.

The provisions of the Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act, 1919, render unnecessary the procedure under these Acts, so far as regards the purchase of houses erected under State-aided schemes. But the use which is made of the Acts affords some indication of the extent of the demand for ownership of houses of this class.

During the year ended the 31st March, 1922, loans amounting to £57,010 were sanctioned for the purpose of advances by Local Authorities under these Acts to enable occupiers of houses not exceeding £800 in value to purchase the houses. Owing, probably, to the expectation of falling prices and to the prevailing industrial depression, there has been a considerable decrease in the number of applications as compared with the year ended the 31st March, 1921, which established a record. During that year 28 Local Authorities received sanctions amounting to £202,680; only 13 Local Authorities have made applications in the present year.

In accordance with the special provision made by section 5 of the Housing Act, 1921, the Minister issued an Order on the 26th August, 1921, fixing 6 per cent. as the rate of interest chargeable on advances made under the Acts.

ACTION UNDER PARTS I & II OF THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES ACT, 1890.

Repairs to Houses.

Insistence upon the repair of houses which can be kept or rendered habitable is important both from the point of view of sanitary administration, and as maintaining the supply of suitable houses.

The Reports by the Medical Officers of Health for the year under review showed that Local Authorities had displayed considerable activity in regard to inspection of houses and the enforcement of repairs, though in some cases only a comparatively small number of inspections under the Housing (Inspection of District) Regulations, 1910, had been made, and little action taken in regard to unfit houses.

In 1,503 districts for which returns were tabulated, 306,727 houses were inspected under the Regulations, and the total number of houses inspected, including inspections under the Public Health Acts, was 1,084,864. The defects in 180,699 houses were remedied without the service of formal notices. Notices under section 28 of the Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act, 1919, were served in respect of 30,147 houses, and of these houses 19,631 were rendered fit by their owners and 801 by the Local Authorities, while in 425 cases the owners gave