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in my last report I referred to the muncipal lodging-house in
Parker Street, as having been completed and brought into
operation early in 1893. It now appears that, owing to the
working expenses of this establishment having been greater
than expected, and to the fact that the capital outlay largely
exceeded the estimate, the net return during the first fourteen
months, was only If per cent, instead of the 3 per cent,
requisite to pay interest on the outlay, and to reproduce the
cost of the building in 55 years. The Council therefore
resolved, upon the recommendation of the Public Health
Committee, to raise the charge per bed per night from 5d.
to 6d., as from 23rd June, 1894. The Committee are sanguine
that the experience gained in this first experiment will enable
them " to indicate in what way a cheaper form of construction
can be secured, and which is certainly called for if the nightly
charge is not to exceed 4d. a bed."
MIGRATION AS A REMEDY FOR OVERCROWDING.
By the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, the
County Council, but only with the sanction of the Home
Secretary, are enabled to erect, purchase, or hire, houses, &c.,
without, as well as within, the Metropolis. The question will
naturally arise, therefore, as I observed in my Report for 1889,
whether something might not be done to remedy the evils of
overcrowding, by schemes providing for the migration of
numbers of the people to workmen's towns a little way out of
London, where land is less costly—a plan which,with a service
of cheap trains, should be practicable. The carrying out of the
provisions of what were formerly known as Cross's Acts, in
London, must needs be a costly procedure at all times,* and
* " The Metropolitan Board of Works carried through 22 Schemes, whereby
59 acres of land were acquired and cleared, on which accommodation has been
provided for 38,231 persons. The amount thus expended by the Board, in giving
effect to Cross's Acts, exceeded a million and a half sterling, or about £40 per
head ; this being irrespective of the outlay on Model Dwellings erected, on the
cleared sites, by such bodies as the Peabody Trustees" (Annual Report of the
Medical Officer of Health for 1888-89, page 130).