SHEFFIELD.

Other details of the various dwellings are given in the tables on pp. 43 and 54. The Corporation is clearing a large insanitary area. (Crofts) at a cost, to 25th March, 1906, of £105,492 (after allowing for value of site charged to cost of dwellings which have been erected on a portion of the site). The capital outlay on the dwellings to 25th March, 1906, including value of site (£3,169 7s. 6d.) is £29,285. 124 dwellings (on the flat system) and two saleshops have been erected. Attached to each of the dwellings is a small scullery and a separate w.c. and coal-place. A further block of buildings on this site has just been erected, to include 57 dwellings, three lock-up shops, and 11 store rooms, at a contract price of £10,000.

The Corporation has also erected a block of 20 cottage houses in another part of the city (Hand's Lane) under Part III of the Act. The total cost to 25th March, 1905, is £6, 104, including £715 for site. The accommodation includes larder, kitchen, coal-cellar, sitting room, and three bedrooms, with w.c. for each house. These let at 6/6 per

week each.

The Corporation has also purchased three other sites in various parts of the city at a cost respectively of £16,266 for 74 acres (High Storrs), £10,219 for 60 acres (Wincobank), and £5,970 for 12 acres (Edmund Road). Nothing has yet been expended on the erection of dwellings on the first-mentioned site. The second is an estate on the north-east side of the city, in an elevated position, but within comparatively easy distance of the great engineering works. The estate has

These

been planned out, and 73 houses have already been erected. houses consist of three types. Class A, of wh ch there are 35, contain living-room and scullery, with coal-house, pantry, and w.c. on the ground floor, and two or three bedrooms and a separate bath-room on the first floor. Class B are a little larger, and contain the three bedrooms, with all the other rooms as mentioned in Class A, and are let at 6/6 and 7/per week, clear of rates and taxes. An important feature in respect to the above scheme is that each house has an area of 200 yards of land.

The capital expenditure to 31st March, 1906 (exclusive of value of sites as given above), is for Wincobank £12,911, and for Edmund Row £3,253. On the third site the Corporation is building 70 houses, and contracts are let for £13,000.

An entirely new development of the question of artisans' dwellings has taken place in Sheffield within recent years. A section of the Corporation's local Act of 1900 authorises the Corporation to appropriate any surplus lands acquired by it, and not required for the purposes for which they were purchased, and utilise them for various objects, including the erection of dwellings under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts. Certain pieces of land in the centre of the city or near to it have come into the possession of the Corporation as a result of street improvements carried out under local Acts, and the Corporation has erected thereon saleshops and dwellings, and flats over the same. Five blocks of property have been erected on such lands,

comprising 19 flats and 43 dwellings, at Snig Hill, Westbar, Gibraltar Street, Kelvin Buildings, and Whitehouse. Unfortunately, the shops have not let at all well at the rents originally estimated, and they are now being let at reduced rents.

Cheap Cottages—a remarkable scheme.-The third class are remarkably cheap houses, built from the plans and specifications of Mr. H. L. Paterson, at a cost of £126 per cottage, and let at 5/per week. Details are given under the heading "Cheap Municipal Cottages."

Model Cottage Exhibition. An experiment of a novel character and of great practical value is being carried out at Sheffield on municipal land which other large towns might very well copy with advantage. Details are given in a subsequent chapter.

III.--RECEIPTS AND WORKING EXPENSES OF MUNICIPAL DWELLINGS.

The following summary of the financial results of the municipal dwellings dealt with in pages 32-118 will indicate the nature and relative proportions of the chief burdens in the rent. The various schemes may be roughly divided into three classes :

1. Subsidised Sites and Buildings. Where the rents are insufficient to pay the market rate of interest on all loans for the actual cost of land and the cost of buildings as well as working expenses. These are mainly on slum sites in provincial towns, and let at very low rents.

2. Subsidised Sites. Where the rents are sufficient to pay working expenses and the market rate of interest on the cost of building and the housing valuation of the land, but insufficient to pay the interest on the full actual cost of the site. These are mainly on slum or central sites in London.

3. Non-Subsidised Dwellings.—Where the rents provide for the market rate of interest on all capital outlay as well as working expenses. The figures are as follows for all three classes:

Worked out in the case of 12,000 rooms in cottages costing £67 per room, we get the following results ;

Average rent £4 per room, or 1/6 per week.

Rates 1 per room, or 5d. per week.

Repairs 7/- per room, or 1d. per week.

Management 2/6 per room, or say d. per week.

Total working expenses, £1 9s. 6d. per room or 7d. per week. Gross profit 3 d. per cent. or 11d. per week.

A most valuable report on the subject of Rural Housing was presented to the House of Commons on the 11th December, 1906, by Sir John Dickson-Poynder, M.P., as chairman of the Select Committee on the Housing of the Working Classes Amendment Bill, brought in by Mr. F. Mackarness, M.P., which passed its second reading on the 27th April, 1906.

The outstanding facts brought to light by the evidence were :

1. That the Rural District Councils did not do their duty either under the Sanitary Acts or under the Housing Act of 1890, and that those who tried to act were met by all sorts of dangers and obstacles.

2. That the County Councils, so far from stimulating the Rural Councils to provide better housing accommodation under Part III of the Act, were either apathetic or put all sorts of obstacles in the way.

3. That the various Central Authorities, while freely circularising the Councils as to their duties, either could not, or would not, give those facilities for securing cheap land, cheap building and cheap money, that are absolutely essential to the production of cottages at the normal rents prevailing in rural districts.

4. That the laws with regard to Land, Housing, and Sanitary Administration were cumbrous, inadequate, and costly to carry out, and while burdening willing authorities with dear land, dear building, dear money, and difficult procedure, have failed to provide machinery for giving effect to enlightened public opinion as against the great power possessed in and over local authorities by those who are interested, or, rather, think they are interested, in opposing the improvement of existing dwellings and the provision of more and better new cottages.

5. That even if the above-named legal and administrative difficulties were removed, new cottages could not be provided at the rents prevailing in many of the purely agricultural rural districts where, as survivals of the old "furniture of the estate" practice, labourers' cottages were let at nominal rents of from 1/- to 2/- per week.