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Appendix II.
MEMORANDUM BY MR. W. H. OWEN, B.Sc. TECH., A.R.I.B.A., A.M.T.P.I.
1. The provision of housing for the working classes is a world wide problem to which, as yet, no completely satisfactory solution has been found. The problem is initially one of economics, arising from the fact that the majority of the working classes cannot, out of their earnings, pay a rent which will cover running costs and provide interest on the capital outlay required, whether the capital be provided by private enterprise or by the State. For private enterprise house building is a method of putting capital to use for private gain. For the State it is a matter of social duty and the profit motive can be eliminated. Until recent years the State has hesitated to compete with private enterprise, but the steadily improving standards required for working class houses have cut down profits to such an extent that, for the most part, the building of working class houses is no longer attractive to the private investor, and the State has been forced to enter the field.
2. The housing problem is as old as the hills, but it is only in comparatively recent times that any concerted and sustained attempt has been made to solve it. The present movement began in Europe with the rise of industrialism at the begin- ning of the 19th Century. The rapid influx of people from the country to the towns found municipal authorities totally unprepared. Towns grew like mush- rooms, without plan and without control. Where sanitary provision was made it was extremely primitive; for the most part however it was completely lacking. Badly built houses were crammed together as tightly as possible round the factories. Condtions became so appalling that something had to be done. In England, from 1848 to the end of the 19th Century, a long series of Sanitary and Public Health Acts were passed, but the nett result was that, although sanitary conditions improved, overcrowding actually increased. Improved housing was achieved at the cost of increased rents which the workers could not afford to pay.
3. The same thing has happened in Hong Kong. Whilst the latest type of tenement is healthy enough if each floor were occupied by one normal family, the vast majority of workers cannot afford sufficient money to rent a floor for the use of one family alone and the result is that, in normal periods, we have over- crowding side by side with empty tenements. Legislation which ignores economics. is useless.
4. In England, prior to the war, the State had been content to supervise the provision of housing by private enterprise. The shortage of houses and the high cost of building after the war necessitated action being taken by the State. The economic effects of pre-war legislation controlling housing, public health and com- munications had led to the working class house becoming almost standardized in plan. (See Plan No. 5 Fig. 3). The building lot was deep and narrow fronted, similar to the normal Chinese tenement in Hong Kong. (Cf. Plan No. 2 and Fig. 3 Plan No. 5). The high cost of building after the war necessitated the strictest economy and, on examination, it was found that the pre-war type of house was uneconomical in plan. It was found that the nearer the plan approached to a square the cheaper the cost of the building covering the same area of land and the greater the access of light and air in all parts (see Plan No. 5). In spite of the utmost attempts at economy, costs could not be reduced sufficiently to enable the working classes to pay an economic rent. The responsibility for providing working class houses was thrust on to the local authorities but little was done until the Government agreed that, whatever the loss, no part of it exceeding a rate of one penny in the pound should fall upon the local authority. The supply of houses resulting from this was, numerically, a great success but the cost to the State. enormous. In consequence methods were changed and a grant was offered of a fixed subsidy per house of specified size built by private enterprise, to let or to sell, and a subsidy to local authorities for houses built to let. This method resulted in 400,000 houses being built in six years, but the majority were built to sell and not to let. The poorer working classes remained unprovided for. Other difficulties in the way of providing houses were shortage of labour and the high cost: