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Housing of the Working Classes Bill (No. 2).
A Bill to amend the Housing of the Working Classes Acts, 1890
to 1909, and the Small Dwellings Acquisition Act, 1899 ; and to encourage
the private ownership of dwelling-houses and business premises amongst
the working classes.
The object of this Bill is to enlarge the powers and stimulate the
activities of voluntary associations and also of municipal authorities
with a view to securing a better supply of housing and, to some extent,
of shop accommodation for the working classes ; and especially to enable
State credit to be used with a view to enabling occupiers to become
owners. The Bill proposes to do this in three ways :—
(1) Section 67 of the Housing of the Working Classes Act,
1890, as amended by section 4 of the Housing and Town Planning
Act, 1909, allows the Public Works Loan Commissioners to lend
up to two-thirds of the amount required by voluntary associations
who are undertaking the work of providing dwelling-houses for
the working classes ; but there is no provision in these sections
(which extend only to " dwellings for the working classes ") to
cover the case of small shops. In many poor class neighbourhoods
it is desirable that power should be available for constructing
a house and shop together.
(2) Many members of the working classes, especially in the
north of England, desire to acquire the ownership of their own
houses. In Oldham, according to the Local Government Board
Report of Ma}', 1909, out of 33,000 inhabited houses, over 10,000,
or about a third, are owned, or in course of being purchased by
artisan proprietors. The Bill proposes to assist voluntary associations
; whether friendly societies, building societies, co-operative
societies, insurance societies, or similar bodies who are promoting
this work of house purchase. The societies at present generally
advance up to three-quarters or four-fifths of the purchase price
of a house to their members, and then receive payment of principal
and interest over a period of years, the advance being secured,
till paid off, by a mortgage on the house.
It is the experience of these societies that with money borrowed
at, say, five per cent, (which is the usual rate), an occupier can by
repayments spread over a period of fifteen years to twenty years
acquire the ownership of his house. These repayments generally
do not exceed in amount, and in many cases are actually less than,
previously paid in rent.