Page:Lectures on Housing.djvu/28

 land is dear, the workman does not necessarily pay more—perhaps he cannot, but he gets less for what he pays.

If we are to develop on Garden City lines we ought to have land at not more than £300 an acre; and we must ask whether it is available for building workmen's houses at a figure within that limit. Now, the price of land is largely determined by the relation between the available supply and the effective demand. Therefore, the way to cheapen land, since obviously we do not want to lessen the demand, is to increase the available supply. There are three ways of doing this which we must consider with reference to working men's cottages. We can give greater powers for the acquisition of land for building them. At present it is extremely difficult for a Municipal Authority to acquire land compulsorily. Many of the Housing Acts, although they were intended to be simple, have proved in practice both cumbersome and costly; and that is also true of the powers possessed by municipalities