NEWS OF THE WEEK.
r 11HE housing issue is now before the country in all its significance and gravity. In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr. Wheatley, in a singularly lucid speech, explained his project for a fifteen-year programme for ,house building. The policy will reach its zenith in the financial year 1940-41,, when the expenditure, made up of the charges on the Exchequer and of the contributions from local authorities, will reach £34,400,000. The Housing Bill itself is not yet ready, but the Minister of Health explained the essentials of the whole matter on a money resolution. As our readers will no doubt remember, the State is to give a subsidy of £9 per annum for forty years—the subsidy will be £12 10s. in agricultural dis- tricts—and the local authority will add a subsidy of £410s. per annum. Sir William Joynson-Hicks showed that, including the charge on the rates, the scheme will cost the Country about £2,500,000,000, or one-third of the present amount of the National Debt. The House was astounded by such figures.
