Heating, cooking, and hot water supplies for the post-war house : a summary of the views of the Women's Advisory Committee on Solid Fuel.

Date:
1944
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Heating, cooking, and hot water supplies for the post-war house : a summary of the views of the Women's Advisory Committee on Solid Fuel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I Introduction Our Committee was formed in March, 1943,* following a request made by the Domestic Fuels and Appliances Committee of the coal industry to some of the leading women’s organisations for advice as to the features regarded as important from the women’s standpoint, in providing heating, cooking and hot water supply service in post-war building. We have had the benefit of meeting many leading experts on the subject; our members have personally visited collieries, carbonisation works, and factories where appliances are manufactured. We have also drawn on the many valuable reports recently issued by official and unofficial committees which have investigated problems of housing and post-war reconstruction generally. A list of the principal documents and sources of information used in preparing this Report is given in Appendix II. The Domestic Fuels and Appliances Committee, the British Coal Utilisation Research Association and some of the appliance manufacturers have afforded us access to research and development work now in progress. This has helped us to form our own conclusions as to the improvements in domestic heating and cooking services which we are entitled to expect after the war. At the same time we desire to make it clear that the views and recommendations put forward in this Report are our own, and do not necessarily represent those of the coal industry or other bodies with which we have been in touch. We regard it as our function to provide a link between the housewife on the one hand and research workers and technicians on the other. Our task has been, and will continue to be, that of presenting the needs of women in such a way that they may help to guide the course of research and of expressing the results of such re- search in language which can be readily understood by the untrained users of fuel. We realise that the demand for new houses must exceed supply for many years to come. We are anxious that everything possible should be done to avoid the danger of undue haste in building, which may lead to neglect of the essential services of heating, cooking and hot water supply. The disastrous policy, followed after the last war, of cutting down building costs led in many cases to inferior and inconvenient installations and an increased burden upon the weekly budget of the householder. We believe that an extensive use of temporary dwellings would be preferable to the policy of building, with inadequate preparation, permanent houses which will adversely affect living conditions for many years. We would suggest, however, that temporary buildings should be used only under public control and with a statutory limitation to their period of habitation. * See Appendix I.
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