HOUSING OUR PEOPLE

Scottish Bishops’ New Year Message – 1946.

At present the thought of peace is uppermost in all our minds, but dread of the future fills every heart. At a recent meeting of the Hierarchy the Bishops felt constrained to make a declaration on a question closely connected with the preservation of peace—the housing of the people. The matter is one that calls for energetic action on the part of priest and people alike. The Church has long been reluctant to interfere in this affair because the provision of houses is not her direct concern. Yet certain aspects of the problem have a moral bearing, and so bad have conditions become in recent years that these aspects have assumed an overwhelming urgency. The bishops felt that the opening of a new year, the first since the cessation of hostilities, was an appropriate moment to make a statement on this burning question.

First of all, we point out that every individual has a right to decent living conditions. The material wealth of the world was placed by God at man's disposal, not for the benefit of the few or the strong, but in order that conditions should be created in which every individual would be enabled to develop in accordance with the designs of the Creator. Such conditions imply as a minimum that adequate food, clothing and shelter should be available to everyone. For this end men were equipped by nature with the faculty of acquiring and increasing wealth so that they could make provision for their present and future needs and for those of their dependants. Partly for this end too nature designed that men should live in society and should choose for themselves a government which, among other things, would ensure that no individual, without fault of his own, should fall below this minimum standard of living, as long as there was sufficient wealth available to the community to make provision for all.

Now our country at the present time has ample resources at its disposal to make available to all its citizens not only the minimum but a considerably higher standard of life. That the country has not hitherto done so is a blot on our character as a nation. The most notable failure has been in the matter of housing. Of the difficulties that have existed and do exist we are fully conscious, but justice demands that every family be adequately housed. The individual families whose need is so desperate can do little by themselves. Hence it is the responsibility of our rulers to overcome the difficulties and remedy the deficiency as quickly as is humanly possible. The evils to which the present sub-human level of housing gives rise are almost a by-word, so glaring are they and so long with us. The spiritual development of our people is retarded; in many cases efforts at educational improvement are rendered futile or at best seriously obstructed; home and family life, in the normal Christian acceptance of that term, is made impossible; marriage is discouraged and family limitation encouraged at a time when the survival of our race is dependent upon a large increase in the average size of the family. Slums and overcrowding too are among the main predisposing causes of tuberculosis and constitute serious contributory causes to the spread of many other diseases. Finally, poor living conditions have a direct bearing on the increase of juvenile delinquency, a problem which is daily becoming more pressing.

As well as contributing powerfully to these evils, bad housing is in itself a physical evil of the first magnitude. The serious inadequacy of the present situation needs no emphasis from us. Conditions are bad throughout the country but they are at their worst in Scotland. Much of the trouble is no doubt due to the sad legacy we have inherited from the past. For in order to make provision for a rapidly increasing population in the last century and in the early part of this century, houses were built in the most hurried manner, far too little attention being paid to the type of houses built. This resulted in houses that were little better than hovels, often devoid of even sanitary accommodation. Since 1918 public opinion as to what human standards of housing should be has undergone a welcome change and between the wars commendable efforts were made to improve matters. In Scotland about 350,000 houses were built between 1918 and 1939 and, while some of the types and designs are open to criticism, they can at least be said to conform to the minimum standards. But great as this achievement was, it was not great enough, considering the urgency of the need and the volume of resources and labour available. Of the 1,300,000 or so houses now occupied in Scotland about 900,000 were built before 1914, while over 400,000 have no sanitary conveniences. Three houses out of every five in the great cities of Scotland have no bathrooms and two out of every three in rural Scotland have no water at all laid on inside the house. In 1938 more than 66,500 houses were classified as unfit for human habitation but are still occupied, while in the same year 200,000 houses were estimated to be required to relieve overcrowding. Perhaps the gravest aspect of all is the accumulated dearth of homes for the young men and women who have married during the war. Some 170,000 young couples have no homes of their own and the number is increasing every day. No one can assess the social and spiritual detriment to our people and the personal anxieties and difficulties of these young people in the most vital period of their lives.

These figures give us some idea of the immediate need. More than half a million houses are required to ensure that every family is provided with a dwelling which complies with minimum human standards. This is the primary target. The secondary target is to improve the standard of housing. We must have homes, not just houses. Consequently all houses should be healthy, roomy and warm. Each house should be equipped with a bathroom and at least three bedrooms. Considerations of privacy would seem to require two living rooms; and the proposal that in addition at least one of the bedrooms should be adaptable as a sitting-room during the day is highly commendable. This would seem to be a necessary provision for children who must study at home. The high proportion—70 per cent—of two bedroom houses built in Scotland between the wars is to be deplored. For this reason we welcome wholeheartedly the recommendation of the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee which lays down the three bedroom standard.

When planning new housing schemes attention should be given not merely to the home as a little community, but also to the wider community aspect of the scheme as a whole. A new housing scheme creates a new community. Consequently it is not merely a question of providing houses for so many individual families. Everything, that is likely to promote social and community life in the area should be considered. This implies a minimum provision in the way of churches, schools and recreational centres.

The achievement of these targets will present a formidable task. We are perfectly aware that in the immediate future there will be many other demands of pressing urgency on our limited resources. Our war-scarred economy must be repaired and set in order; our export industries must be raised to the peak of efficiency in order to ensure the maintenance of food and other supplies; no pains must be spared to restore, and in time to increase, our pre-war standard of life. But, unless there is to be chaos, an order of priority must be prescribed. And it seems to us that once our food supply has been assured no other commitment should take priority over housing for the people.

The many technical difficulties, especially of finance, must be overcome, not at some -distant date, but immediately. It is the responsibility of the Public Authorities to see that adequate provision is made for every family. This does not necessarily mean that the Public Authorities must themselves build the houses, but it may mean that the Authorities—central or local—should bear some of the financial burden. The policy of subsidizing housing has been accepted by successive governments in the last twenty years; but this policy must not be used as a veil for excluding efficient private builders. We welcome therefore the decision taken during the war to subsidize the provision of houses for all classes of the population.

Our statesmen have proclaimed their intention of treating the problem with the same degree of imagination, drive and efficiency as would be applied to a military operation. As Catholic citizens we for our part must not forget that the provision of homes is something more than the mechanical process of putting up buildings, however efficient and smooth the process may be made. The home is the heart and core of family life and the creation of homes is one of the means of fulfilling God's purpose. It is with this as our ideal and motive that we should all approach this vital task. The scheme before us calls for united action on the part of the Government and the Local Authorities, on the part of contractors and employers, on the part of tradesmen and labourers. It is the social duty of those engaged in the industry to lend all their energies to the production of homes, even if it means sacrificing more congenial work. Likewise there must be unselfish support at the hands of the public at large, who should refrain from any action which might appear to turn the present grave situation to their own personal advantage. Without the co-operation of all, the work cannot be accomplished.

In particular we would remind the clergy that this evil is so closely knit with the spiritual well-being of the Faithful that no priest can afford to be apathetic in its regard. It is the obvious duty of every priest to give close consideration to the difficulty and to exert all his energies in an endeavour to remove the flagrantly unjust conditions which at present prevail so widely in this country.

Already public conscience is uneasy. When once the nation is thoroughly roused we may look for the speedy removal of an evil which stains our social system so deeply with disgrace. Given adequate provision of suitable dwellings we may look for the restoration of family life on which the future of the country must depend. We may also look forward in all confidence to a day in the not remote future when in happy homes throughout the length and breadth of Britain the Angels' Christmas message will be received with sincerity and understanding, that message which for weeks past has been ringing in our ears: "Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on earth to the men that are God's friends."

Given at Blairs College, Aberdeen, this First day of January, 1946, and directed to be read in Churches and Chapels on Sunday, January 6th, 1946.

* ANDREW JOSEPH, O.S.B., Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh.

* DONALD, Archbishop of Glasgow.

* GEORGE, Bishop of Aberdeen.

* WILLIAM, Bishop of Galloway.