increase in the cost of building houses of similar cubical content when built in a different way. A little consideration will make it clear that increased expenditure on cottage building may result from town planning schemes (a) By the breaking up of long lines of buildings and the substitution of pairs of cottages, or blocks of four, six and eight cottages grouped together; (b) By the increase of the frontages so as to enable rooms to be built broad, and not deep-thus giving ample room for sunlight to reach every part of every room. Councillor Harold Shawcross, of Rochdale, in his report prior to the war on the "Cost of Development," gives the ascertained priced cost of building semi-detached houses, compared with the cost of building twelve houses in a row, as £13 more per house. Those engaged in the development of estates may prefer to build in blocks of four, six and eight houses, in which event the extra cost, as compared with the cost of a row of twenty houses built without a break, will be from £5 to £10 per house. In regard to (b) there can be no doubt that, under town planning schemes, not only will the frontage space of cottage sites be increased, but the actual building frontage will be increased. The effect of thus widening the frontage may affect the cost in two ways (1) By the increase in the length of roads to be made; and (2) By the increase in the cost of brickwork. The first of these has been dealt with in the chapter on the cost of land development under town planning schemes. In regard to (2) it may be pointed out that the cost of the brickwork need not be greater as a result of the wider frontage, always provided that (a) The cubical contents of the houses in both cases is the same; and (b) That projections from the main building are avoided. The old type of suburban cottage with a 15 ft. frontage is really a wasteful form of building, for it is narrow and deep. It usually has a depth of 24 ft. to allow of two rooms each 12 ft. deep. In addition to this, a costly projection in the form of a scullery adds to the cost of the brickwork. The cottage with a 20 ft. frontage need not be so deep, and the shape of the house may, therefore, more nearly approach the perfect square the form which gives the maximum cubical content with the minimum of brickwork. It would appear, therefore, that the only item of additional building cost in cottages built on areas developed under town planning schemes is one of from £5 to £10 on pre-war figures, due to the breaking-up of the long rows of houses into blocks of from two to eight houses. What then is the extra cost involved in adopting the new standard of ten houses to the acre on land developed in accordance with The Possibilities town planning schemes, as contrasted with the of Providing old standard of forty houses to the acre on land Cottages for Workmen under developed with 36 ft. streets under the old method Town Planning of lay-out? Schemes. (1) It has been found that the price of the plot of land under the new conditions is £10 more than under the old conditions. (2) The extra expenditure on roads, sewers, paths and drains, due to the adoption of the new methods of planning, has been ascertained to be about £8 per house, but the addition to the cost can be reduced to nil where by-laws require the provision of back streets and passages, and where these can be suspended in the framing of town planning schemes. Under the new system as laid down in the Housing Manual not only will there be no additional cost but a considerable saving will be effected. (3) The extra cost of building construction has been ascertained to be from £5 to £10 per cottage. Taken together, these make a total of from £23 to £28 per cottage. The resultant cottage, as compared with the old type of cottage, possesses the following advantages (a) It has four times as much garden land; (b) It has an average frontage of 25 ft. and a building frontage of 20 ft. instead of an average frontage of 15 ft.; (c) It is constructed so that every room is well lighted and healthy, and is, in the best sense of the term, a healthy home for a workman and his family. What, then, will this extra cost of from £23 to £28 mean to tenants of cottages in annual and weekly rents? Taking a period of forty years for the repayment of capital and interest on the annuity system, and the rate of interest as 4 per cent., an annual sum of £5 1s. Old. must be paid per £100, or 63d. to 7d. per week. These figures, it must be remembered, are pre-war and may now be taken to be approximately three times as much. CHAPTER XL CONCLUSION It may be suggested that every local authority shall be required to prepare, within a specified time, what may be termed a preliminary scheme by which the more simple con Preliminary ditions referred to previously can be applied to the whole of its un-built-on area. The following are some of the principal matters which should be dealt with in this preliminary scheme- (1) The fixing of the maximum number of houses which may be built per acre. Such general limitation might be adjusted in greater detail for the different areas if and when a complete planning scheme is subsequently adopted. (2) The fixing on all existing roads of such building lines as will reserve sufficient un-built-on width to meet any probable future widening required by the traffic. (3) Such modification of by-laws as to streets and buildings as will facilitate development on the improved lines now generally recognized as desirable. (4) The securing of routes for any new main communication roads, whether local, regional or national, the need for which is recognized. If these proposals were adopted, all the possible building land of the future would be protected from the worst evils of uncontrolled development. The main lines of sound expansion would be secured for both town and village without a prohibitive amount of detailed work in connection with ownership, surveys, individual notices, negotiations, etc., and the most essential precautions need not be delayed until all the difficult matters connected with the complete town planning schemes had been worked out. Nor would this immediate protection stand in the way of a complete town planning scheme being applied in any given area at a later stage and after due consideration. Working men, especially those of the younger generation, are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their housing accommodation. The educational work of housing reformers, and the example set by the garden suburbs in various parts of the country, have quickened a desire for houses containing more breathing space. But these can only be provided if land is available at a moderate price. It was reported at the International Housing Congress of 1913, that out of thirty-four garden suburbs schemes three allowed for a maximum of thirteen or fourteen houses per gross acre. Now if we take twelve houses per acre as an average figure, it will be seen that every £100 of cost per acre on land is equivalent to a weekly cost of 1d. per house. The dearest land which had been used for garden suburbs is £500 per acre at Hampstead and £400 at Liverpool and Coventry, exclusive of the cost of roads and sewers. But in all these cases, the high cost of land, as we are assured by those responsible, has been a serious handicap. Generally speaking, and assuming that the cost of development (i.e., making roads, constructing sewers, etc.) is not more than about £300 per acre, it may be said that for housing the working classes on garden suburb lines not more than £250 or £300 per acre should be paid for the undeveloped land. This would involve a weekly charge of about 4 d. for rent of land, or 9d. including the cost of roads and sewers. When more than £400 is paid for land, either rents must be charged which are unduly high, or the houses must be crowded together. The following table shows how differences in land value affect that rent, assuming different degrees of density of development. The table refers solely to the cost of land and leaves out of account all development costs (for roads, sewers, etc.). Four per cent. interest on the purchase price of the land is assumed in calculating the cost per week. Weekly cost of land per house assuming that the number of houses per acre are (a) Cost of |