(s.p.b.s) The political divide over the issue of house building from the public purse was exampled when the central government’s Local Government Board refused to accept the point made by Skirlaugh Rural District Council that ‘Scarcity will be appreciably relieved by the erection of cottages by private enterprise’. This prompted Skirlaugh R.D.C. to carry-out a housing survey the results of which were that of the 245 houses surveyed (a sample) 65% were found to be very unsatisfactory. The usual criteria used in assessing the satisfactoriness of a house were (a)that there was overcrowding in the rooms, and (b)that the condition of the house was such that it was nearly ‘unfit for human occupation’. The criteria for assessing overcrowding usually related to bedroom accommodation, especially where children and young adults of both sexes had to sleep in the same room and/or with parents. Such situations were considered to deprive young people of moral propriety leading to moral impropriety in the future.
So change was imminent, but then the Great War came along and priorities changed. That said, in 1917 (long before the British Army began to reverse the great German ‘push’ of spring 1918) the Local Government Board issued letters to county councils asking for statements on housing needs. This was followed-up by a letter in the spring of 1918 stating that central government would make good 75% of the local authority’s house building deficit after the building of houses for the working classes. House building was clearly to be at the forefront of a new post-war era of social reform.
However, the East Riding County Council took a rather perverse interpretation of this upsurge by deciding to build new cottages for some of its employees such as teachers, policemen and roadmen, thus, in theory freeing-up cottages that these people had previously lived in for other tenants (this sometimes known as the ‘filtering down’ theory. But was this providing working class housing?
(to be continued – but my laptop now needs a new fan so will not get it back ’till next week).