Planning our new homes : report by the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee on the design, planning and furnishing of new houses / Publication prepared for the committee by the Department of Health for Scotland.

  • Great Britain. Scottish Housing Advisory Committee.
Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Planning our new homes : report by the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee on the design, planning and furnishing of new houses / Publication prepared for the committee by the Department of Health for Scotland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/184 (page 10)
    GRAPH _l. GLASGOW GRAPH I. War. The graph shows the wide fluctuations in building activity throughout the whole period and the high output of new houses attained in peak years. The vast majority of these houses were of two rooms and less—a fact which explains the deplorable conditions of overcrowding in . Scotland to-day. classes resulted in a substantial improvement in the general level of housing conditions, with the result that out of about 1,300,000 houses occupied in Scotland at the present date over one-quarter, or about 350,000, have been pro- vided since the last Great War. Of this number, 247,000 have been built by local authorities with the aid of subsidy under the various Housing Acts. In equipment and conveniences these houses constitute a great advance on most types of working-class houses built before the last Great War, and if in this report we have felt bound to criticise, sometimes in stringent terms, the design and layout of these houses, the accommodation provided and the types and amount of equipment installed, it must not be assumed that we are oblivious of the splendid achievement of local authorities in a field in which prior to 1919 they had had very little experience. Such criticisms as we have made and such recommendations as we have framed are based on our conviction, which we know is shared by all local authorities and all organisa- tions and individuals who have given serious study to the problem of improving housing conditions in Scotland, that a criticalappreciation of what has been donein the pastis the firm founda- tion of future development and progress. -. [4 GRAPH 2. \ SCOTLAND ENGLAND & GRAPH 2. Houses bulk in Scotland and in ioe and Wales between the two Great Wars. The graph shows that on a proportionate population basis the output of new houses in England and Wales was consistently higher than in Scotland. This was mainly due to the fact that 30 houses were built by private enterprise in England and Wales for each house so erected in Scotland. This report would be incomplete if we did not survey very briefly the scope and magnitude of - the Scottish post-war housing problem in so far as it can be accurately estimated at the present time. The immediate post-war demand for new housing accommodation will be made up of: (a) houses required to replace unfit houses, (b) houses required to relieve overcrowding,. and (c) houses required to house families which have no homes of their own—principally families created by marriages immediately before and aoe bs the war—and to meet other general needs . ) The demand for housing accommodation in follows : Replacement of unfit houses (i) Houses found in 1938 to be so unfit as to require FPA ment ; (ii) Houses estimated to ie. re- quired to replace those which will have become unfit be- tween December 1938 and _ . December 1943 . Bch sk 66,538 55,000