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any substantial evidence to show, that the County Council has
"evicted" any tenants unreasonably, without consideration, or in
a manner unauthorised by the provisions of the Act. Any such
allegations against the Borough Council are groundless, the Council
not having either power or occasion to "evict" anybody on these
areas. The Borough Council has no power whatever itself to
expedite the clearance of these areas. That is a matter, at present,
wholly in the hands of the County Council. I understand that the
practice of the Council in respect to displacements, say upon the
Roby Street area, which is the area more particularly concerned
at the moment, has been to issue notice to quit only in cases where
the tenant has been four weeks or more in arrears with his rent.
Further, when the warrant officer has attended with the Valuer's
assistant, I am informed that if the tenant has not secured other
premises to which to remove, " formal possession " only has been
taken, and the tenant has been allowed to remain a few days, and
in some exceptional cases for a few weeks, pending arrangements
for removal or for the payment of rent. I am further told that
information has also been given to the tenants of the situation of
dwellings belonging to the County Council, the accommodation
provided therein, and the rents asked for. It will be understood
that this statement respecting the County Council's practice is not
based upon first-hand evidence, but upon information received. As
I have already pointed out, upwards of 500 persons have, in fact,
removed, or have been removed, from closed houses on all five
areas simultaneously during the period under consideration ; the
clo ed houses have remained empty, and the dispossessed persons have
not been accommodated by the County Council either on the areas
or in the vicinity of the areas, except in so far as they may have
overcrowded the remaining houses.*
It will be understood that the responsibility for the sanitary
condition of these five areas rests, not with the Borough Medical
Officer of Health, but with the Sanitary and Housing Authorities of
the London County Council. Nor has the Borough Medical Officer
any power to expedite the clearance of these five areas. He has, on
various occasions during the last two years drawn the attention of
the owners of the properties and of the authorities of the County
Council to the numerous insanitary conditions existing ; the County
° I do not suggest that persons not paying rent should be accommodated, but
the house accommodation itself might have been kept available.