In the Augean stables

All three of the big political parties have had a hand in “solving” the housing problem. The Tories began with the 1851 Act, and the Times (March 25th, 1927) boasted that the Tories had a record of achievement in this direction extending over seventy years. The Liberals and the Labour Party both claim credit for several Acts under which house building has been helped by the Government, through subsidies or otherwise.

The late Mr. Wheatley, prominent member of the I.L.P., was responsible as Minister of Health for the Labour Government’s Housing Act in 1924. Imposing figures have been presented showing what has been done. Up to November, 1932, over 1,800,000 houses had been built since January, 1919, 1,096,387 with State aid and 797,249 without aid., (See Manchester Guardian, November 2nd, 1932).

As long ago as 1928 the Conservative Party, in a leaflet called “Conservative Social Reform,” claimed that their Government had been able “to wipe out the housing Shortage by building nearly 650,000 houses in less than four years.” And yet, after the problem has been “solved” many times during the past century, and after all the chief reformist parties have had a hand in it, supplemented by innumerable philanthropic and semi-philanthropic efforts, the evil is with us still, as huge and as devastating as ever.

(From “The Housing Problem — The Socialist View”, SOCIALIST STANDARD, January 1933)