FURNISHING HOMES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 131, 4 June 1937, Page 9

FURNISHING HOMES

NEEDS OF POORER CITIZENS

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, June 2,

In opening an exhibition in London today of working-class furniture and equipment, organised by the Council for Art and Industry, the Minister of Health, Sir Kingsley Wood, said that housing progress was such that about 1,000,000 people in this country moved last year into new houses. There was real need for advice and assistance which would enable houses to become real homes, he said. Numbers of people did not possess sufficient furniture and equipment to make their new house a home because they had not the means to enable them to do so. Local authorities had power under the Housing Act to provide furniture for their tenants in such cases.

The scheme at Birmingham enabled furniture to be supplied in suitable cases to young married couples. At Gateshead the corporation, through local retailers, provided furniture, and instalment payments were collected each week with the rent. It was noteworthy that notwithstanding the industrial difficulties at' Gateshead the arrears of instalments were less than 2 per cent, of the amounts due for payment. The corporation was raising the standard of the tenants without cost to the rates. . •

This was a limited but important social field, and such efforts as these certainly gave many new opportunities for a fresh start in life for a number' of poorer citizens, the Minister said.