“The Government have sounded the trumpet for a_ general
attack upon the slum evil. I am confident that this movement is
going forward with such force of conviction that nothing can stop
it”’ (Sir Hilton Young, Minister of Health, 1933.)
To-day 90,000 people in Glasgow are living 3 to a room. 47%
of Glasgow’s houses are slums.
In Liverpool, 1964, 40% of all dwellings in the city are slums
and at present rate of clearance some of these slums will be standing
at the end of the century.
40,000 Nottingham houses are over 80 years old.
“Many Local Authorities should be able to solve their housing
problems in five years.” (Harold Macmillan, Minister of Housing,
Nottingham, 1964: The average wage earner who puts his name
down for a council house has a five-year wait before his goal is
reached. .
It is obvious that behind these facts and figures there lies misery
and deprivation for the most helpless sections of our community.
The type of society we have evolved since the War, can give us the
flashier products of an industrial system: cars, motor cycles, clothes,
etc. What it has failed utterly to do is to provide the one thing
essential to basic human happiness: a home.
Unless we kick out the Tories this October, Britain for some
of us will simply be a system of superb motorways connecting one
slum with another.
Published by The City Labour Party, 110 Mansfield Road,
What must be done ?
MONEY The cash to build your council house is borrowed for 60 years or over 6% interest, and thus a £2,600 flat or house costs the city £10,000! Some profit to the money lender, eh? In 1961 Local Authorities were paying £330 million in interest. Something like 55% of a council house rent is an interest charge. 1945-51 Labour held interest rates at less than 3%. By doubling interest rates the Tories have nearly halved council house building and forced Local Authorities to put up rents. In doing so they hope to discredit Labour local authorities. We must slash the interest rates. We must put money into housing—not into the money lender’s pocket. : Only LABOUR can do this.
LAND In big cities land is costing Local Authorities £500 to £600 for every house or flat built. In London that cost averages £1,500 per dwelling. Since the last Labour Government in 1951 the price of land has risen from ten to fifty times. All capital gains are tax free, of course. Southwell, Notts.: Plot of land 22 acres, bought for £1,800 in 1953 and sold in 1961 to Southwell R.D.C. for housing. Price? £45,000! While we go around ‘tut tutting’ about Mods and Rockers, some smooth, affable, polite individuals are robbing us blind. Labour must stop this. The money saved will build more houses. Cut out the Money Shark and the Land Grabber and the money available for houses automatically increases.
BUT We can do more. Britain allocates a much smaller proportion of her resources to housing than most European countries. Here are some figures: Britain 3.5% of the gross national product. Sweden 5.7% of the gross national product. Germany 6.4% of the gross national product. Germany already builds 550,000 houses per year. When you realise that of Britain’s 164 million houses, 2.8 million are over 100 years old, 6.1 million are over 60 years old, and our population will increase by 8 million in the next twenty years it is clear that we must change our priorities, and quick! Only LABOUR can do this.
How Shall We Build ?
How shall we use your money to build your houses?
The City Labour Party is mounting an Exhibition to show how
the building industry could change the face of our old tired cities
once the dead hand of Tory Rule is removed.