ABSTRACT
The rather depressing picture of the building industry is now beginning to change. Local authorities are only on the fringe of much of this development. Many of the rural and smaller urban authorities may feel untouched by the operations of the largest national contractors or by the minority of authorities who build tall flats or large schools. The scope for improvements in design and in the control of costs of two-storey housing is very great and the benefits can be secured by the efforts of the small authority as well as of the large. The work of the development group of the Ministry of Education has shown how great a contribution can be made to the general body of thought and experience on schools by an exhaustive examination of user needs and costs, coupled with actual experience of erecting a small number of schools on behalf of local education authorities.
