(7) Employers of Labour.

CHAPTER XI

EMPLOYERS OF LABOUR

SOME houses have been built by employers for their men, but the supply from this source has been for many years now steadily decreasing. The "tied cottage" has been found to create an altogether dependent position for the worker-tenant and has consequently been less and less useful. The exception to this rule is where the employer removes his factory from the town to the country, and, consequently, has to migrate his workpeople and supply them with cottages. In our rural districts this failure has been intensified owing to the increased difficulty experienced by the landowner in erecting cottages at a price which will bring in any return at the highest rent that can be charged.

The most valuable examples of cottage building by employers of labour are those at Bournville, New Earswick, Port Sunlight, Hull, Woodlands, etc.

The

The modern movement may be said to have taken its rise in the establishment of the model villages of Bournville by Mr. George Cadbury, and of Port Sunlight by Lord LeverEstablishment of hulme. Bournville was founded as an experiment Bournville and in housing, not to provide accommodation for the Port Sunlight. work-people at Mr. Cadbury's factory. It has been open to all from its inception. Port Sunlight gave expression to the desire of wise employers of labour to raise the status of their employees. The efforts of these pioneers to secure better housing conditions became a national service, and an increasing number of men and women, anxious to learn the art of proper planning and good building, visited these two villages year by year.

Both villages possess the great merit of giving ample space about the houses, in the form of either gardens or open spaces, and both are examples of the wise limitation of the number of houses per acre.

In Bournville preference has been given to the provision of large private gardens, whereas at Port Sunlight the founder has preferred to provide amenities in the form of open spaces, either adjacent to the houses, or in the form of playing fields and allotments.

The new houses in the course of erection on the New Chester Road are, however, being provided with gardens attached instead of detached allotments, so that both systems will be in operation at Port Sunlight in the future.

The financial organization of the two schemes differs greatly. In Port Sunlight the rents charged do not include any provision for the payment of interest on the capital invested, which is written off annually, but are fixed on the basis of providing for sinking fund and all other charges, including rates and repairs. The tenancy of the houses is limited to the employees of Messrs. Lever Brothers, Limited, and represents in effect the desire on the part of the employers to give their workmen some share in the prosperity of the firm. In more recent years the founder of the firm has developed an exceedingly interesting form of "prosperity sharing," by which the employees are given shares in the great business which has been built up and which has now ramifications throughout the world.

The most important of the model villages is Bournville, near Birmingham, where Mr. George Cadbury has made a free gift of

the whole site to the community, and there is in Bournville. full working order a little township identical in aims and ideals with that of the Letchworth pioneers. A public trust has the entire charge and management of the village; all the housing conditions are dictated by this trust and are of the most perfect kind.

The main conditions of the trust deed with regard to the letting of land are as follows

(a) Houses to be either semi-detached or in blocks of four. Dwellings to occupy only about one-quarter of sites. Although gardens of 600 square yards were given with most of the houses built in the earlier years of the Village, there is no rule that this area shall be universal, and as a matter of fact, recent developments have been carried out on a basis of ten houses to the acre.

(b) Factories not to occupy more than one-fifteenth of whole estate.

(c) Land

(1) Leases of land, although granted at the beginning of the scheme for 999 years, are not now given for more than 99 years. There is, however, an arrangement by which the lease may be

renewed for a further similar period, on the expiration of the first term, at a revised ground rent.

(2) Cottages built on the land let on the above terms are the property of the lessees during the continuance of the lease.

There are, however, a great many cottages built on unleased land and owned by the Trust. These are let on the usual weekly tenancy.

(3) The rate of ground rent is fixed on the usual commercial basis.

(4) Restrictive covenants in the leases.

(5) Money on mortgages at 2 per cent. to 3 per cent. was arranged by Mr. Cadbury when the village was first projected, but this has not been continued by the Trust.

The rents are, at the same time, by no means "philanthropic," for the very essence of the idea is that Bournville should be an experiment such as any municipalities wishing to house the working classes at a paying rent might imitate. This principle was expressly stated by the founder himself on the completion of his generous gift. "The public announcement," he said, "of the experiment would not have been made just now (1901) had it not been for the fact that the London County Council and other important municipal bodies are preparing great housing schemes, and that I feel so strongly that it would be a lamentable mistake to herd working people together in localities other than those they now occupy, thereby creating more slums."

Bournville has certainly demonstrated that the housing of the working classes in thoroughly good, sanitary, and even beautiful cottages (with gardens attached) is quite possible, and that a fair return of 4 per cent. can be made on the capital to cover ground rent, rates and taxes, repairs and total management. How wonderfully well this experiment has worked out only a visit to the charming village itself can fully show. But in proof of its success may be mentioned the following facts: (1) The cottages even before the war were never vacant, but there was keen competition for renting them at 5s. and upwards per week; (2) the general pride taken in the appearance of the interior of the houses, and especially of the gardens, is everywhere apparent; (3) there is practically no loss owing to arrears of rent; (4) more than half the inhabitants of the

village are not engaged, as might be expected, in the famous cocca works at Bournville (residence in the village is quite optional for employees), but work in Birmingham and the surrounding districts and have come to Bournville, attracted by the housing conditions; and, (5) last, but not least, the health of this community of men and women is extraordinarily good.

The vital statistics for the last five years are as follows—

Quite early in the development of Bournville, Mr. George Cadbury decided to take three steps of great importance

(1) To take as tenants not only workmen employed at the Bournville factory, but also workmen employed at other factories in the district and in Birmingham;

(2) So to fix all rents as to provide a clear 4 per cent. return on the capital; and

(3) To place the control of the estate in the hands of a board of trustees with instructions to use all future revenues for the development of the estate or other estates.

It may truly be stated that the value of these villages as object lessons has been a hundred-fold that of the value of the service rendered to the individual families resident in the houses on the estates, for the establishment of these villages placed beyond question the value of careful planning and ample provision of open spaces.

Hull Garden
Suburb.

The founder of the Hull Garden Suburb followed the example of Mr. George Cadbury-a fellow member of the Society of Friends. This experiment was started in 1909 by Sir James Reckitt in the suburbs of Hull. The village of Port Sunlight, including the area reserved for extension, extends over 260 acres. It adjoins a works area of 287 acres, and has over 5,000 inhabitants in 1,100 Port Sunlight. houses. The first sod was cut by Mrs. Lever on 3rd March, 1888.

The village was commenced by the purchase of 56 acres at

£200 per acre for the Sunlight Soap Works, 32 being allotted for housing on town planning principles, but it has since materially raised the price of surrounding land, the latest addition to which, an adjoining slum, cost £1,000 per acre. Its five or six miles of roads vary from 40 to 70 ft. in width, and all are treeplanted, the carriage-way being 24 ft. wide, the pavements 8 ft. to 12 ft., beyond which lie tufted gardens, 18 ft. to 30 ft. widemaking 70 ft. to 80 ft. across from house to house. The rule is to make foot-paths one-third the width of the adjoining carriage-way. In the centre of the estate a dip in land, which was formerly marsh, is laid out as a park of 25 acres. This and the front gardens are tended by the Company's gardeners, the latter gardens at an average cost of now 41d. per week; but for the exercise of personal taste and skill there are ample allotments-let at 5s. per annum for 10 perches, with water laid on-behind the various groups of houses, most of which face open spaces. At the last census the birth rate was 26.8. The crude death rate was 8:19 per thousand, and the standard death rate 9.7 per thousand as against 14:3, the Registrar-General's rate for the whole country.

The public institutions of the village include a church, staff training college and schools, Hulme Hall, Gladstone Hall, Lady Lever's Memorial Art Gallery, in course of completion, co-partners' club, a gymnasium, an elegant open-air bath; bandstand, collegium, girls' club, tennis, and bowling grounds; a beautiful drinkingfountain; cottage hospital, co-operative stores entirely run by residents, and a most attractive inn. At first the last-named was unlicensed, but as the result of a vote of 80 per cent. of the inhabitants in favour of a licence, this has been obtained. The Bebington show grounds have recently been acquired as a recreation ground for the employees of Port Sunlight and their families.

The Port Sunlight houses are of chaste, antique design, the better ones half-timbered, two to seven of them in a block, and no two blocks alike. They are mainly of two types-the kitchen cottage and the parlour house. They vary in accommodation to suit all families, and, to prevent the low rents being abused, the number of inhabitants allowed to each is strictly limited, so that over-crowding is avoided.

The accommodation in the cottage type provides for three bedrooms upstairs. The parlour cottages differ from the others in