No social security problem possesses the same extent and urgency as the tragedy of Europe's housing conditions. The Consultative Assembly considers that the present situation is a real collective human tragedy involving the lives and happiness of millions of families. Even before the war, the existence of slums, the crowding of whole masses of people into inadequate dwellings, the failure to provide adequate accommodation for so great a number of workers in both town and country, was a disgrace to our civilisation. The extent of the task is greater than ever to-day. The destruction and damage of millions of homes in the war, and the fact that in many Member States it has been impossible, during the war years, to undertake any construction plans, have combined to produce the most serious housing crisis in the history of Europe. The task to be undertaken will certainly be difficult and of long duration. But the Assembly requests the Member States to do all that is within their power to build a better Europe, and to provide all Europeans with the elementary right of decent housing-a right properly stressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
From the economic point of view, it is essential to ensure that each of the Member States shall benefit from the experiences gained by the others in the field of technique and new methods of construction and reconstruction.
There should be a continuous exchange of information concerning the proportion of personal income devoted to housing, as much in the case of workers' dwellings as in rural housing,
From the social point of view, a study of the following problems is required:
The Assembly instructs its Committee on Social Questions to organise as quickly as possible the exchange of information on housing policy among the various Member States of the Council of Europe.