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room, bedroom, scullery, w.c., and independent entrances from the front and back of the cottages. The rents are for class A 9s. per week; class B 7s. 6d. ; and for the tenements 6s. There are forecourts 15 feet in depth, and gardens ranging from 50 to 60 feet. The total cost of the scheme was 16,700. Owing to greater cost of land and additional price for materials and labor, the margin left for empties and repairs will be about eight per cent.

A further scheme has been carried out at a charge of about £44,000, including land, buildings, roads, sewers, etc. One hundred and forty houses have been erected: 26 of class A, containing sitting room, living room, scullery, and four bedrooms, let at 11s. 3d. per week; 40 of class B, the same as class A, with three bedrooms, let at 9s. 6d. per week; 38 of class C, with two bedrooms, let at 8s. per week; and 36 of Class D, let at 6s. 6d. per week, and containing living room, small scullery, bath room, and two bedrooms.

HUDDERSFIELD.

The Huddersfield Town Council has the distinction of being the first local authority to set up a common lodging house. This it did in 1853, at a cost of £5,000, enlarged in 1878 by another £1,500. It accommodates about 200 persons nightly, in four classes, viz., married couples, single men, single women, and a "mechanics' home." It just about pays its way.

The artizans' dwellings erected by the corporation in 1880-82 comprise 160 houses on leased land at a cost of £28,944, including street improvements. The rents range from 3s. 4d. to 6s. weekly.

KINGSTON-ON-THAMES.

The corporation has built 12 good cottages, which let readily at 9s. and 10s. a week. The rent includes electric light. The workmanship is good, and each cottage has a yard and small garden.

LEICESTER.

Two blocks of buildings, containing 42 tenements, have been erected by the town council, and cost £7,989.

LIVERPOOL.

The corporation, after having built six tenement blocks in 1869 out of "Funds of Capital Personal Estate," and similar block dwellings in 1885 and 1890 under the Act of 1875, and finding themselves unsuccessful in their endeavors to provide accommodation for the poorest of the citizens, determined upon a new policy. With the help of the city engineer and building surveyor new designs were made and experimental dwellings were erected by directly employed workmen under the supervision of the building surveyor. The aim was to provide tenements of two and three rooms to let at rentals of about one shilling per room. The first group of new dwellings was erected in 1898 under Part III. of the Act of 1890. The living rooms average 15 ft. by 10 ft., and the bedrooms 11 ft. by 10 ft. Each dwelling is supplied with water and gas, and contains separate

w.c. With modifications this design has served as the model for most of the Liverpool municipal dwellings since 1898. The number of dwellings erected down to the end of 1905 is as follows:

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The valuation of land for housing purposes (usually put down at about one half the actual cost) and cost of buildings stand at £356,705 12s. 4d., and the gross annual rental at £17,799 12s. 8d. The net receipts from the property in 1905 were 7,312 10s. 9d., a little over two per cent. on the capital value. The schemes therefore show a small financial deficit, the return being insufficient to cover interest and sinking fund.

The first of the later series of tenements were built directly by the corporation. These cost £54 per room to build. The tenements built by contract have cost considerably more, but it is only fair to say that the designs have contained improvements which made them more expensive.

In 1905 a block of twelve dwellings was erected in Eldon Street, built of crushed clinker (from the corporation refuse destructor) and Portland cement, moulded into slabs, each slab forming a complete side or roof of a room, openings for doors and windows as well as fireplaces and flues being formed in the moulding. The rooms are 10 ft. high, the living rooms 15 ft. by 10 ft. 4 in., and bedrooms 15 ft. 3 in. by 7 ft. 9 in. The cost of the buildings apart from land was £4,072, the land being put down at 12s. per yard. The cost greatly exceeded the estimate owing to the powerful hoisting appliances required for lifting the heavy slabs into position. The city engineer, who designed the buildings, considers that if a large number of dwellings were erected on this plan so as to spread the cost of the hoisting apparatus over a greater area of building, these concrete houses would be cheaper than those built of bricks and mortar. The rents charged for the three-room tenements in Eldon Street range from 4s. 6d. on the ground floor to 3s. 9d. per week on the second floor.

The Upper Mann Street Dwellings, opened December, 1905, have been built with a flat roof, with shelters at either end, to be used as a play-ground for the tenants' children or as a drying-ground for the use of the housewives on washing-day.

MANCHESTER.

The policy of the corporation has been to treat housing as part of a great work of sanitary amelioration. In 1889 it was decided to apply the provisions of the Artizans' and Laborers' Dwellings Improvement Acts to certain unhealthy areas of the city, and the passing of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, facilitated the

work in this direction. An improvement scheme for the Oldham Road and Pollard Street areas was adopted. The cost of purchase and clearance amounted to £97.481 for an area of 18,629 square yards in the Oldham Road district, and £9,546 for the Pollard Street area of 5,474 square yards. The buildings cost respectively £60,577 and £26,220, and were completed and ready for occupation in 1894.

In 1891 the corporation acquired certain condemned property in the Ancoats district, known as the Harrison Street area, at a cost of £5,147 for 3,442 square yards. A lodging house was erected thereon costing £23,564, and is fully occupied. An area of 5,671 square yards in Chester Street was also acquired at a cost of 15,141, and 5,819 square yards, known as the Pott Street area, at a cost of £14,621. Dwellings were erected on the cleared sites at a cost of

14,598 and 17,942 respectively. One hundred and twenty-two dwellings have also been erected at Miles Platting at a cost of £30,000, in fulfilment of statutory obligations in connection with various street improvements.

In 1901 the Blackley Estate was purchased, comprising about 243 acres, at a cost of £36,646, for the purpose of housing persons displaced by certain street improvements. Two hundred and three houses of various classes, at a total cost of £62,737 3s., are in course of erection.

In Rochdale Road 64 tenements have just been completed, and are rapidly being let at rents varying from 4s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. per week.

The sanitary committee, at the close of the year 1903 and beginning of 1904, arranged for the acquisition of three additional areas in Bradford Road, Wesley Street, and Queen's Road, on which it is proposed to build working class dwellings.

RICHMOND, SURREY.

In 1894 this corporation borrowed 13,380 at three per cent, repayable in 40 years, for the purpose of building on three acres of land previously purchased by the town at £700 per acre. Sixty-two dwellings, cottages and flats cost £12,700, and the investment has resulted in a material saving to the rates. The total outlay on this first scheme was about £15,750. The rents are as follows:-With six rooms, a scullery and a bay window, ten at 8s. and twelve at 7s. 6d. per week; twenty-eight cottages, having four good rooms and a scullery, 6s. per week; six flats, with three rooms and a scullery, 5s. 6d. per week; and six other flats, having two rooms and a scullery, 4s. 6d. per week. These municipal cottages are cheaper than those provided by private enterprise, and the corporation is so well satisfied with its experiment that it has erected seventy more dwellings at a cost, including site and contingencies, of about £22,000. There are forty cottages with six rooms, scullery and a bay window at 7s. 9d. per week; sixteen cottages with five rooms and a scullery at 7s. 3d.; and fourteen with four rooms, scullery and porch at 6s. 3d.

SHEFFIELD.

The corporation is clearing a large insanitary area, known as the Crofts Improvement Scheme, at a cost to 25th March, 1905, of 105,327. The capital outlay on dwellings to the same date amounted to £29,825. One hundred and twenty-four dwellings on the flat system, at rents varying from 3s. per week for one room to 6s. per week for three rooms, have been erected. Attached to each is a small scullery and a separate w.c. and coal place. In Hands Lane the corporation has erected 20 cottage houses under Part III. of the Act at a cost of £6,104, including £715 for site. They contain either four or five rooms besides conveniences, and are let at 6s. 6d. per week each.

Three other sites have been purchased-High Storrs, 32 acres at a cost of 16,264; High Wincobank, about 60 acres, 10,188; and 8,200 square yards in Edmund Road for £5,970. The first-named has not yet been developed. Forty-one houses have already been erected on the Wincobank estate. These have a living room and scullery, with coal house, pantry and w.c. on the ground floor, and two or three bedrooms and a bath room on the first floor. The rents are 6s. 6d., 7s. and 7s. 3d. per week. Twenty cheaper houses, to let at a rent of 5s. per week, are now in course of erection. On the Edmund Road site 70 houses are being erected, containing either four or five rooms.

Under a local Act various plots of surplus lands acquired in connection with street improvements have been utilized for the building of shop dwellings and flats. Five blocks of property have been erected on such lands. The flats are let at rents of 4s. 6d., 4s. 9d., and 6s., and the dwellings at 5s. 9d., 6s., 6s. 3d., 6s. 6d., and 8s. per week.

SOUTHAMPTON.

A site was bought and cleared at a cost of £32,630. Various classes of dwellings, including a lodging house for men, have been erected, costing so far about £37,000. Owing to the heavy expenditure on the site and its clearance, the scheme does not yet show a commercial profit.

SUNDERLAND.

Under Part I. of the Act an area was purchased and cleared, and £31,780 expended in the erection of two and three-roomed tenements to let at 3s. 9d. to 5s. per week.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

The matter has been agitated for years. Part III. was adopted and land purchased, but nothing further has been done.

WEST HAM.

The following is the record of work done in this progressive borough :

Bethell Avenue. Amount borrowed, 15,550. Twenty-seven double tenement houses erected by the corporation works depart

ment.

Corporation Street and Eve Road. Amount borrowed for land and houses, £46,451. Forty-five double tenement houses in Corporation Street, and forty double tenement houses in Eve Road, all erected by contract.

Manor Road Estate. Loan sanctioned for land, 11,750; for 310 houses, 121,546. Purchase of land completed, but building scheme suspended.

Channelsea Estate. Land taken on lease for 99 years at £243 10s. per annum. Amount borrowed for land and houses, £27,454. A slum district demolished, new roads formed, and forty-seven double tenement and eleven single houses all erected by the corporation.

Invicta and Rendel Roads, Custom House. Loan for land and houses, 17,273. Thirty-six double tenement houses erected by the corporation.

Temple Mills. Loan for land, £4,550. Building scheme in abeyance. WIGAN.

The corporation of this town built 160 artizans' dwellings, but has sold them recently.

Urban District Councils.

So far urban district councils have not often adopted the Housing Act.

Cromer decided to erect cottages under Part III., and obtained an offer of a suitable site, but owing to local opposition the Local Government Board was persuaded to refuse the required loan.

Barnes has erected 42 cottages, class B, five rooms and scullery, costing £247 and let at 8s. 3d. per week; class B2, with four rooms and scullery, costing £225 and let at 7s. per week. The council has also erected eleven cottages containing four rooms and scullery, costing £240 and let at 7s. 9d. per week, together with fourteen double tenements costing £208 and let at 7s. 3d. per tenement. The site is over two acres in extent and cost £1,600.

Ealing purchased 6 acres in 1899, on which 139 cottages and flats have been erected at rents from 5s. 6d. to 10s. per week. These are in great demand, but in spite of this, 1 acres of the land has been appropriated for a recreation ground.

Finchley bought 4 acres of land and has erected 60 dwellings of various classes. Part of the land has been utilized for cottage gardens for the occupants of the houses, which are all let. The scheme has cost approximately £18,500, and is self-supporting.

Leigh, Lancs., has erected twenty cottages containing five rooms each, and let at 5s. 6d. per week. The cottages cost £185 apiece to build, the site being purchased for £874.

Stretford built in 1896 twenty double tenements under Part II. on 4,117 yards of land, at a total expenditure of £5,913, including 840 cost of provisional order condemning the insanitary area. There is also a chief rent of £35 on the land. The rents vary from 3s. 3d. to 4s. 6d. per week. Under Part III. a scheme has recently been formulated for the erection of 112 semi-detached dwellings,

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