294 THE BRITISH APPROACH TO POLITICS

for considerable argument about the value of the site. Some
precautions are necessary; it is obviously unfair that a man
should be required to effect repairs and then be told soon after-
wards that even so the house is not fit to live in; and against this
there is a legal safeguard. But as the law now stands, it is more
likely to conflict with the public interest by delaying local
authorities, than by injuring owners of property.

Houses which -are in themselves satisfactory, may be over-
crowded to a degree that threatens health and decency. The 1936
Act gives a .legal definition of an overcrowded house^ as one in
which the number of persons exceeds two per room. For this
reckoning, children under ten count as half a person, and babies
under one, not at all; on the other hand, the permitted number
is less for rooms under no square feet in area, and in dwellings
containing between one and five rooms. Where the local
authorities find legal overcrowding, they must require the
householder to put an end to it, and prosecute him 'if he has not
done so after three months. During 1936, the local authorities
carried out an inspection of nine million houses, of which only
3.8 per cent, appeared to be overcrowded. But the standard set
is not high, and many houses, are overcrowded to the point of
serious inconvenience while keeping just within the legal limit.
Moreover, the figure quoted is an average, and does not by itself
give a true picture; in Sunderland, for example, 20 per cent, of
the families were overcrowded, while in Bournemouth the
percentage was only 0.3.

Unless there is an abundant supply of new houses, slum
clearance is only of limited value, and the punishment of over-
crowding an absurdity. Since the War, over three million houses
have been built,, and one-third of the population rehoused—an
accomplishment without parallel in any other country. But,
while .the great majority of these are cheap enough for the
better-paid sections of the working class, the supply for the poorer
sections, who suffer most from overcrowding, has been seriously
inadequate. It is not profitable for,private enterprise to build