“,eeeeeThe Clearance of slums and the replacement of several million’ rumdown obsolete houses is not to be achieved by warmhearted good intentions, With this in mind and with a nervous glance at the political dangers of exposing themselves to the charge of vote-catching, the Liberals..rojected a target of 500,000 houses a year as unrealistically high,
"But is it? ‘Something like this figure has got to be reached if the Liberals are to achieve their own ambition of ending..Ithe chronic shortage of houses in a decade’. On their own calculations about 7 million new houses are going to be needed within 20 years, and until that figure has been reac hed people will be condemned to live in houses which cannot count as decent homes, Is such an injustice to be tolorated for another 20 years?
",eeeHouse building is running at prosont at only just over 300,000 dwellings a year, In the past 5 or 6 years this rato has not incroased, and the resources of the building industry soem to be overstrotched as it is, The Government “hito Paper of May looked for an annual rate of no more than 350,000, and superficially there is somo logic in this calevlation, Yet there is no doubt at all that sors houses could be built if a political decision to allocats the necessary resources were made, Compared with some Turopean countries we are putting too small a part of the national rosources into housing, In 1961 Britain spent 34% of the gross national product on now housing compared with 6.4% in Germany and 5.7% in Sweden. If we matched the German or Swedish effort the 500,000 houses targot would be within reach"