COTTAGES.
[TO TEl EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sne,—Your article on the Cottage question has much interested me,. I trust the following facts will mitigate the despondent feeling in which it was penned. In spite of the very high prices now paid for bricks, timber, labour, ironmongery, &c., I have just arranged to erect 18 good and substantial cottages (not back to back). containing on ground-floor one large dining-room 16 feet by 12 feet 8 in. in the clear, with small kitchen or washhouse, and three bed-rooms of equal area above.
They will be supplied with drinking and soft water, and the necessary sanitary appliances will be drained into a contiguous. sewer. The cost of the 18, completed, will be £1,998, say £111 each.. No architect is employed. The builder is a working master car- penter, who has built many for me before. The money is advanced him as fast as it is expended, and be can buy all his materials for -cash, and at the lowest prices consistent with soundness and good .quality.
These cottages will be let at 4s. weekly, owner paying rates—say, -3s. 6d. net—and they will be occupied by men earning not more than 20s. weekly average wages, but who are eager to possess such a home, and willing to pay this rent. You will at once note the cost of the land is not included, but at £50 per acre the addi- tional cost per house is not much increased, and that with this -item added and 10s. deducted for repairs, insurance, and oceaaional defaulters, they will pay a fair interest on the original outlay, say 7 per cent. Now what is done in one of the dearest counties in England surely can be carried out in more favoured localities.—
Previous page
