Britain almost more than any other country in the world must seriously face the problem of building upwards, that is to say, of accommodating a considerable proportion of its population in high blocks of flats. It is said that the English man objects to this type of existence, but if the case is such, he does in fact differ from the inhabitants of most countries of the world today. In the past our own blocks of flats have been associated with the lower-income groups and they have lacked the obvious provisions, such as central heating, constant hot water supply, electrically operated lifts from top to bottom, and so on, as well as such details, important notwithstanding, as easy facilities for disposal of dust and rubbish and storage places for baby carriages in the ground floor, playgrounds for children on the top of the buildings, and drying grounds for washing. It is likely that the dispute regarding flats versus individual houses will continue to rage on for a long time as far as Britain is concerned. And it is unfortunate that there should be hot feelings on both sides whenever this subject is raised. Those who oppose the building of flats base their case primarily on the assumption that everyone prefers an individual home and on the high cost per unit of accommodation. The latter ignores the higher cost of providing full services to a scattered community and the cost in both money and time of the journeys to work for the suburban resident.
英国应该比世界上任何其他国家更重视向上建设——也就是将相当一部分人口安置在高层公寓中的问题。据说英国人反对这种类型的居住方式，但如果是这样的话，它实际上与当今世界大多数国家的居民不同。过去，我们自己的公寓楼与低收入群体相联系，缺乏明显的规定，例如集中供暖、持续热水供应、上下电梯等等，以及这些细节，尽管很重要，比如作为处理垃圾的简易设施，一楼的婴儿车存放处，建筑物顶部的儿童游乐场，以及洗衣干燥室。就英国而言，关于公寓和个人住房的争议很可能会持续很长一段时间。不幸的是，每当提出这个问题时，双方都会有强烈的感情。那些反对建造公寓的人主要是基于这样一种假设，即每个人都更喜欢一个独立的家，单元的住宿成本高。后者忽略了为分散的社区提供全面服务的更高成本，以及郊区居民上班的金钱和时间成本。
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