Four years ago Mr. F. Lawrence, of Mansfield House University Settlement, ascertained the following accommodation and rents to rule for trade unionists in the respective large provincial towns :-Bristol, 6s. 6d. for five rooms and scullery; Hereford, 5s. 6d. for four rooms and scullery; Birmingham, 5s. to 6s. for five rooms and scullery; Derby, 4s. 6d. to 6s. for six rooms; Sheffield, 4s. 6d. to 6s. for four rooms; Leeds, 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. for three rooms, scullery, and cellar; Bradford, 4s. to 75., with an average of 5s. for three rooms and scullery; Rochdale, 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. for four rooms; and Manchester and Salford, 5s. 6d. to 7s. for four rooms and scullery.

In suburban districts outside London the present tendency is for two families to occupy an ordinary six-roomed house and to pay from 6s. to 8s., or an average of about 7s. 6d. for three rooms

What should be the Standard Rent for Municipal Dwellings.

But, supposing the looked-for improvement in the power of authorities, and the other advantages referred to above, were realized. With lengthened loan periods, lowered interest, simpler sanitation and rural sites, with correspondingly low rates, the expenditure will drop to a minimum, so that the rents charged may be lowered below those charged for the same accommodation by the private speculator. Even then the difficulty will be to so fix the rents that all the working classes can pay them; indeed it must be acknowledged from the outset that the subsistence wage of the poor unskilled worker is not sufficient to allow him to pay the mere interest on the bricks and mortar that must form his dwelling. Under present circumstances it is almost impossible to house the very poor in really healthy homes so as to make a commercial profit. The raising of the standard of building and the enforcement of structural sanitation by Model Bye-Laws, have, while making the houses more habitable, added considerably to overcrowding, and every act of the sanitary reformer will make this problem of housing the very poor more acute. The lowest classes cannot afford to pay any interest at all or any sinking fund, and the community may find it more profitable to house these people at a merely nominal sum than to allow the present wasteful system to continue-a system that destroys health and life, and also demands that worst form of all help, viz., poor relief.

To sum up, it may be said that the following inclusive weekly rents per room in cottage dwellings would be about as fair and reasonable as could be expected :

The efforts of housing reformers should be directed towards securing such reforms as will facilitate the erection of a large number of these dwellings in villages and small towns, and on the outskirts of large towns and cities.

CHAPTER XIV.

CO-OPERATION, SMALL HOLDINGS, AND GARDEN CITIES.

The great Industrial Co-operative Societies, that have done so much in providing pure and wholesome food for the masses of the people at reasonable prices, are now giving special attention to the equally important question of securing pure air and wholesome dwellings for the working classes.

Their recent efforts in this direction have been very much strengthened and stimulated by the active and beneficent influence of the Women's Co-operative Guild, whose numerous branches have never failed to press this question of better housing to the front wherever opportunity has offered. For two years (1899-1900) the Central Educational Committee of the Co-operative Union directed their main energies to spreading the light on the question by means of numerous lectures, public meetings, pamphlets, and joint conferences with other bodies from one end of England to the other, and no small share of the present revival in housing reform must be attributed to their exertions.

CO-OPERATIVE ACTION IN REGARD TO HOUSE BUILDING.

They had been very active in previous years, and from a return recently published it appears that 224 Co-operative Societies have invested over £5,000,000 in the provision of 25,000 houses. About one-sixth of these are owned, managed, and let by the societies as landlords; the remaining four-fifths are sold, or being sold, to members. The following summary shews that the cost of building each house has been from £160 to £340, and has averaged £220.

Total Number of Houses, 24,038. Total Amount of Co-operative Capital invested, £5,197,526. Total Amount paid on account of houses by members, £2,479,615. Amount remaining due to Societies on mortgage, £1,805,505.

How to prepare a Co-operative Housing Scheme.-In the case of hire purchase of an existing house, the procedure has been for the society, after inspection, to provide the money, and order the deed to be made out direct from the vendor to the purchasing member, so as to save the cost of a double conveyance. The member can then mortgage the property to the society by a deed, making him the actual owner of the equity of redemption so long as he keeps up his payments. In the case of house purchase, the societies advance from 75 to 90 per cent. of the purchase money at the rate of from 3 to 5 per cent. (mostly 4 per cent.), with repayments at the rate of id. per £ per month, and interest id. per £1 per month for the first year, and a reduction of 1-20th penny per £1 per month in each succeeding year, until at the end of 20 years the whole sum borrowed has thus been repaid. Rates and taxes are paid by the tenant-purchaser, who undertakes all repairs and painting. Income tax if demanded from the tenant is paid, and a receipt, taken in his own name, is handed to the society as an equivalent for cash. The society, not being the owner of the house, is not liable to pay income or property tax, so it claims the amount from the Special Commissioners, by means of a form of claim obtainable from the local surveyor of taxes, together with the voucher and a statement signed by the officers, that the society does not limit the number of its shares either by its rules or practice. The money is then usually refunded, and in subsequent years the house is often scheduled as exempt. Skeleton mortgage deeds for freehold property are supplied by the Co-operative Union. In some cases members are admitted to ownership on the tenant-purchase system, whereby no deposit is demanded by the society, which waits until the member has a property of a few pounds in the house, and then executes the deed of conveyance. Unlike a building society, a co-operative society has not to pay the salaries of a large staff, and its shares cannot be speculated in so as to be put up to a premium.

The building of houses to order for members has generally been found an expensive method, owing to alterations in the details of the plans and specifications being so often asked for. The better plan is to adhere strictly to certain definite types of building and to accept no application until houses are built and ready for occupation

The terms of repayment have varied from 2s. to 3s. 6d. per week per £100, so that the average purchase rent paid by the members has been from 4s. to 8s. per week, and in the great majority of cases has worked out at about 6s. 6d. per week.

The Co-operative Wholesale Society lends money to the local societies for housing purposes at 3 per cent. There is a strong tendency to retain the ownership of houses in the hands of the societies as landowners, or, at least, as ground landlords; but, where the trade of a town or district fluctuates, there is not only a small demand upon a society for houses on the hire purchase system, but a disinclination also on its part to build and let to members as a landlord, owing to risk of loss from houses remaining untenanted.

The great amount of capital required has also prevented large building schemes being carried out for ownership by the societies, and

up to the present no society has availed itself of the provisions of Section 67 of the Housing Act of 1890, which would enable them to borrow half their capital outlay at about 3 per cent. from the Public Works Loan Commissioners. If, at the same time, they acted as intermediary agencies somewhat on the lines of the Corbett Estates and the Small Dwellings Acquisition Company already described, they could more than quadruple their effective activity.

It is a noteworthy fact that, with all their activity in promoting cooperative housing enterprise, the members of the various societies, as a rule, are strong advocates of municipal housing schemes under Part III. They are convinced that there is ample room for both municipal and cooperative enterprise, and they are not afraid of competition because in many respects they work under similar conditions. They have a plethora of capital within the movement, much of which is invested at 2 per cent., and if they wished they could profitably apply this for housing purposes, while they are not harassed by many of the absurd financial restrictions and building regulations which hinder municipal enterprise. They can buy materials in great quantities, and carry out the work on a large scale so as to reap all the advantages which large producers secure, and except that they have no compulsory powers of land purchase and no facilities for providing cheap transit, can be in a better position than any municipality which expects to carry out a commercial scheme under present conditions.

The Housing Scheme of the Woolwich Co-operative Society. One of the most recent experiments of co-operative societies is that now being carried out by the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society of Woolwich, which is engaged in building 3,500 houses on 150 acres of freehold land which the committee had the foresight to secure in 1886 and 1898. Bostal Farm, Plumstead, containing 52 acres, was bought in 1886 at 120 per acre and utilised for various purposes so as to earn 5 per cent. on the capital invested-a course of procedure which many municipalities might well imitate at the present juncture. In the meantime, the normal increase of land values was going on to such an extent that in 1898, when the society decided to buy the adjoining farm of 122 acres the cost was £318 per acre, so that assuming the first land had brought no return at all in the shape of rent, the mere increase in capital value year by year was sufficient to represent a gain of at least 15 per cent. per annum. The scheme of this society is interesting, therefore, as bearing on the suggestion that local authorities should acquire and hold or lease land under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1900.

The estate, which cost £40,100, is near Abbey Wood Station and Bostall Heath, and the north-east portion, of about 100 acres, has been laid out as approved by the London County Council, with one main thoroughfare 50 feet wide, which runs diagonally across and has eight streets parallel to each other turning out of it. The total cost of the land, roads, sewers, etc., was £56,980. With 20 houses to the acre, each house will require a plot of about 200 square yards, allowing for roads and paths. The society is doing all the building by means of direct labour in the employment of its own Works Department. in

which £6,500 has been invested for buildings, machinery, and plant. Trade Union hours of labour and conditions of work are observed, but all ranks of labour receive not less than d. per hour above the minimum trade union wage, in lieu of profit-sharing. An active minority wished to secure that houses should in no case be sold, but let at weekly tenancies and at the lowest rents that would cover the cost with a margin sufficient for safety. It was, however, finally decided—

1. That in no case should the freehold be parted with, because this had led in other places to property falling into the hands of landlords, large or small, who used it merely as the means of squeezing an undue amount of rent out of their tenants, or applied it for the purpose of piling up shops, offices and factories upon cottage sites, or allowed the dwellings to degenerate into slums.

2. That the houses should be sold subject to a lease for 90-99 years; if possible, only to the members who desired to live in them.

3.-That the society should advance 90 per cent. of the purchase money for thirty years if required, the repayment to be made by equal quarterly instalments, with interest on the basis of 5 per cent.

4.-That the purchase money should include all legal costs, so that a member buying a house should know exactly what the cost would be, and so that all outlay could be spread over a long period with easy payments. To carry out these ideas, it was agreed that a fair minimum repayment should be 11/- per month for 30 years in respect of every £110 borrowed, so that a £300 house could be bought by a rent of 8/3 per week. In order to meet the needs of those who could pay no deposit, it was arranged to let them their houses upon a tenancy agreement, with the option of purchase, charging rent at the rate of 3/2 per week for every 100 of purchase money, plus an amount to cover all rates, taxes, and other outgoings. The rent so paid is credited to the tenant, and after debiting the account, with interest at 5 per cent. and the other outgoings, the balance is carried to the reduction of principal, so that in three years it is reduced to per cent., and a mortgage is executed with repayments on the lower scale mentioned. The society itself insures all houses against fire, and charges the customary premiums-a very wise step in view of the experience of the Artisans' Dwellings Company, which demonstrates the comparative immunity of estates of small houses from expensive fires. In order to prevent ownership drifting into undesirable hands, there are several conditions facilitating re-purchase by the society when the tenants wish to sell.

The first brick was laid on May 28th, 1900, and the sales of houses commenced in December, 1900. Up to July, 1902, the society had leased 153 houses of the total value of £42,470, of which sum £27,125 was advanced by the society. Fifty-four houses, of the value of £16,415, have been let on rent purchase tenancy agreements; and fifty-two houses, of the value of £18,865, were let upon weekly tenancy, producing rack rents amounting to £1,658 16s. per annum.

The general desire has been for a small self-contained house, with 15 feet frontage, containing four or five rooms and a scullery, and costing from 205 to £270. The earlier houses, constructed for two families, did not sell so readily, and many are occupied by weekly tenants. Twelve types of houses have been erected on plots varying from 80 to 120 feet in depth. The elevation varies considerably. The following table gives particulars of the estate up to November, 1902 :—