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148
vision and enforcement of the Public Health Act, will ultimately
solve the insanitary housing problem in the Borough. But in the
meantime, and during the transition period, the problem is an
acute one. On the whole, however, I am of opinion that it
is becoming less acute each year.
The difficulty of the housing question in Finsbury is, of course,
that the price of land and of building is too high to permit of
letting at low rents. The prices are such as can only be paid for
commercial concerns. It is this, of course, which also leads to the
overcrowding of houses per acre in Finsbury. In London there
are eight houses to the acre, in Finsbury there are 19. There is
also considerable overcrowding of persons, therefore merely
increasing housing accommodation is not only impracticable but is
inadvisable. To rehouse large numbers of people within some
Boroughs may be, and doubtless is, the primary and essential
remedy. In Finsbury such a policy on the part of the Local
Authority might seriously and permanently aggravate the evil
conditions at present existing. To this there is one exception,
namely, the rehousing of persons displaced by law from insanitary
property.
There is evidence to show that the difficulty in Finsbury is due
to rents rather than accommodation. Overcrowding is being
reduced, insanitary areas are being cleared, and actual house
accommodation is not wanting in anything like the degree that is
generally supposed. But it is nevertheless certain that, owing to
the high rents demanded, a very large number of persons are badly
accommodated, and the fact that there may be, theoretically, vacant
provision for 5,000 persons (see p. 129) does not in any way alter
that fact. The housing policy of the Public Health Committee may
be expressed in the following propositions :—
1. The strict sanitary supervision and maintenance of
existing houses.
2. The strict enforcement of the Public Health (London)
Act, 1891, as it affects house property and overcrowding,
as far as is practicable and equitable.