Housing ‘famine’ is helping profiteering landlords

Dublin, 25 February 1919 - The Chief Secretary of Ireland, Ian Macpherson, has said that discussions with the Treasury over potential solutions to Ireland’s housing problem were ‘very far advanced’.

Mr Macpherson made the remark after meeting with a deputation from the Association of Municipal Authorities in Ireland, which had placed before him its views on housing and reconstruction problems. The deputation said that Ireland required an estimated 67,500 houses which would amount to expenditure of £27 million. It impressed upon the Chief Secretary the urgency of the problem and indicated that Ireland was entitled to a more generous financial consideration than Great Britain.

Local government labourer cottage plans from the Irish Building and Engineer, 1907 (Image: The Internet Archive)

One consequence of the scarcity of housing in Ireland – described as a ‘famine of houses’ in one newspaper editorial – has been a soaring of rents. The Irish Times recently drew attention to the ‘scandalous system’ of profiteering on the part of a large number of landlords who were not affected by the Restrictions of Rent Act, which was passed in December 1915 and made it illegal to increase rents on ‘small’ houses during the war. However, the measure afforded no protection whatever to tenants who paid rent above a certain amount – in Ireland £26 per year, in London £35. The Irish Times view was that many landlords had increased rents far beyond the level that was reasonable or justifiable. In some cases, it was stated, rents had doubled and trebled.

The Chief Secretary conceded that the case for improved housing in Ireland was ‘unanswerable’ and he suggested that it would be better for Ireland to continue to seek legislative enactments for housing that suited her conditions. Mr Macpherson added that it would be necessary to introduce the system of ‘reasonable rents’ fixed by the Local Government Board (LGB) with the co-operation of local authorities, if need be. Then, provided due care and economy were observed the Treasury might, on the advice of the LGB, pay in subsidy the difference between the economic rent and the rent which the people were able to pay.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]