LIVING WITH "IN-LAWS"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 49, 15 February 1944, Page 2

LIVING WITH "IN-LAWS"

PLIGHT OF 200 NEWLY-WEDS SHEFFIELD HOUSE SHORTAGE The plight of 200 newly-wed couples who sire condemned by local legislation to live in the homes of their "in-laws," was described to a Daily Mail reporter by the Rev. Noel Perry-Gore, Arbourthorne Sheffield. Since the war Mr Perry-Gore has married, more than 200 couples in his parish -church. None of them has been able to find a home ut Arbourthorne. They knew when they were married that they would be condemned to go back to the slums of Sheffield or to live with their "in->laws." The attention to the Minister of Health is being directed to this housing estate, where more husbands and wives are struggling to live under the roofs of their ''inlaws'' than anywhere else in Britain. On the Arbourthorne estate there arc 28000' three and four-roomed houses, none more than eight vears old. It is one of Sheffield's show places. But the young couples who have, married there call it "The Suburb Where Married Life Really Begins." For the local rule says that if any house falls: vacant at Arbourthorne —and that happens only at the rate of 20 or so a year—it must go to a family living outside the estate in one of the slum areas. The. waiting list runs into several thousands. So the young men and women who have grown up and wish to marry and live at Arbourthorne arc faced with the following alternatives Thej r can leave the model estate-, going to, a condemned house in the slums, and thus qualify for the waiting list with a chance of getting back to Arbourthorne in 19 —; they can live with their "in~laws" at J Arbourthorne, if there is room for them, with the hope that, when the j "in-laws" move out or die,. Sheffield Corporation will allow them to ''in-: hcrit" the house. Ninety per cent of them prefer the latter of the two gambles, said Mr Perry-Gore. Alderman C. W. Gascoigne, chairman of the Sheffield housing committee, said: "I entirely agree with the vicar. I; never liked the idea of couples living with 'in-laws.' But I likei less the idea of older couples with large families living in slum conditions."