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128
according to size and position. A tenemented house let in unfurnished rooms by the middleman,
commonly realizes double the amount of the weekly rent paid to the landlord. Considerable
benefit would accrue to many of the labouring classes were the sanitary authorities
of the Metropolis generally, to adopt and fully exercise the powers conferred by Part III. of the
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890 : they would be enabled, as landlords, to provide these
classes, without any material charge upon the rates, with more and better accommodation
than they can ever hope, unaided, to obtain for the money they now pay in rents to the existing
landlords, who naturally study little beyond their own " interests."
The subject being "overcrowding," I think it but right to say that the results of the
inquiry may be deemed to be affected, in a measure, by erroneous statements with regard to the
number of persons in occupation of houses or rooms. The poor are naturally a little suspicious
as to the motives underlying such inquiries, and apt to understate the number and age of their
children.
I have not thought it desirable to burden the report with details, but a large mass of
information has been acquired, and is available for reference.
I have the honour to be,
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
Your most obedient Servant,
T. ORME DUDFIELD,
Medical Officer of Health.
Department of Public Health,
Town Hall, Kensington,
July, 1901.
Postscriptum.—The reference by the Council to the Public Health Committee, to report on
"the nature and extent of overcrowding in the Borough,"was made" with a view to the speedy
adoption of remedial measures, if necessary." On many occasions during the pest thirty years
the housing question, in its various aspects, has been dealt with in the annual reports of the
Medical Officer of Health, and illustrations have been given of the difficulties (only recently in
any degree removed) which precluded effective remedial action on the part of local sanitary
authorities. The headings of some of the references to the subject, and the date of the reports
in which they appeared, are set out in Addendum A, page 129. Attention may be directed to
observations on the Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Working Classes in
the annual report for 1884-5. In 1889 the difficulties besetting attempts to abate overcrowding
in the then (and largely in the present) state of the law, were set out in a report on a circular
letter on the housing of the working classes addressed to the sanitary authorities by the Local
Government Board. Overcrowding has always been the dominating evil; the efforts of
the sanitary authority to cope with it are described in reports on the regulations for
houses let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family. The Housing
of the Working Classes Acts, 1890 to 1900, formed the subject of several reports. Part I. of the
Act of 1890, with reference to "Unhealthy Areas," is administered by the County Council, as
Cross's Act had previously been by the late Metropolitan Board of Works. There are no "Unhealthy
Areas "in the Borough, but Kensington has to pay about one-sixteenth part, of the charge
for dealing with such Areas in the Metropolis generally. In the annual report for 1900 the costliness
of "schemes" under this Part was illustrated with reference to the lately completed improvement
at Bethnal Green (Boundary Street Scheme). Until 1900 the County Council was the sole
local authority under Part III. for all London, save the City. Now, the Metropolitan Borough
Councils may acquire the status of local authority by adopting the Part. To sum up, what
appears to me to be necessary to enable sanitary authorities to deal effectively with the Housing
Question, is—
1. Legislation to restrict compensation within reasonable limits for property in "Unhealthy
Areas" acquired for Improvement Schemes under Part I. [Hitherto such schemes
have been of no benefit to the indigent and evicted poor.]
2. The adoption by the Borough Councils of Part III.; combined action by these bodies
and the County Council for the provision of dwellings for the labouring classes ; and
legislation to place reasonable limits to compensation for insanitary properties
acquired for the purposes of the Part.
3. The registration of all houses inhabited by the labouring classes, and let in lodgings or
occupied by members of more than one family ; a matter now under the consideration
of the Public Health Committee.