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the adoption of a wide policy of construction and reconstruction,
not alone in the crowded parts, but throughout London, so that the
best may be made of city life, and, above all, so that evils eradicated
in one part may not reappear in another."
SUMMARY OF SUGGESTIONS.
Finally, I may add a few suggestions as to measures which, in my
opinion, should claim the early consideration of, and if possible the
adoption by, the Borough Council. In pursuance of the Minute
instructing me to draw up this preliminary report, these suggestions
are only such as come within the work of the Public Health Department,
and are immediately practicable. Many proposals which have
been made for the solution of the housing problem in London are
still in the crucible of economic or political criticism.0 I have not
felt it my duty in the present Report to deal with these or make any
observations upon them. Doubtless there is room for amendment
in the various Acts affecting housing, but the suggestions here made
are mainly within the meaning of these Acts as now existing.
It should also be understood that the suggestions here made are
not set forth as exhaustive, or even by themselves effectual in the
complete solution of a complex problem having very wide economic
and social bearings. They are stages in what must inevitably be a
long process of solution, the satisfactory ending of which will
depend in measure upon a well-informed public opinion. Some of
the following lines of action were, of course, adopted by the late
Vestries in carrying out the various Sanitary Acts
1. The closure and demolition of such houses in the borough as
are in a state so dangerous and injurious to health as to
be unfit for human habitation (under Part II.).
*Such proposals as the establishment of Fair Rent Courts, Registration of
ownership of all houses and land, reform of the incidence of taxation, taxation of
sites at full capital values, extension of the period of repayment of loans for the
purchase of land for building, the reduction of interest on loans, assessment of
compensation under the Act, &c., seem to be of this nature. Upon these and
similar questions I do not express an opinion one way or the other.