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* Act both as sanitary inspectors and health visitors.
Slum Clearance.
To the historian of slum clearance the year 1933 will be one of great importance.
In the early part of the year the Minister of Health issued circular 1331, calling upon
local authorities to give urgent attention to slum conditions and to submit timetables
indicating the period within which complete clearance would be effected.
Reference was made to such knowledge of working class housing conditions
as had already, during the previous twenty years, been acquired by local authorities,
and a short period was suggested for the preparation of programmes based on this
knowledge. In view of its magnitude the problem in London was referred to separately,
and the need for more time than applied to the country generally was
recognised. Moreover it is in London a concern of not merely one but twenty-nine
authorities, the County Council performing the triple task of collaborator, coordinator,
and chief contributor.
The metropolitan borough councils were invited to submit to the Council their
proposals and programmes.
A glance at maps of the county at different periods will show that, during the
last century, housing accommodation in its gradual growth outwards from the city
has moved, as it were, reluctantly and the core now presents a tangled inelastic
congestion, which lacks room for expansion and which is actually suffering from
increasing pressure by reason of the intrusion of industry and commerce and the
consequent increased housing demands. It is not to be inferred that the whole
core consists of slums, but the relief of the worst conditions is rendered more difficult
by the lack of a neighbouring fringe upon which to extend.