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A Schedule contains provisions in respect of the rehousing of displaced persons, applicable to
rehousing schemes carried out by a Local Authority after the clearance of insanitary areas, and
also to displacements effected by street improvements, and by companies acting under compulsory
powers, such-as railway company clearances. The provisions apply not only to the number of
persons displaced, who are in residence at the time the improvement or clearance is carried out, but
also to those who had resided in the area, and who were within the previous five years displaced in
view of the improvement or clearance. This is likely to prove a really valuable bit of housing
legislation.
The Board stated, in the afore-mentioned circular letter, that the new Act gives various
facilities to the Councils of Boroughs, etc., for carrying out the Housing Acts, and they trusted
that its effect would be to stimulate the Councils to exercise the very considerable powers which
they possess under these Acts.
The new Act fulfils certain promises made by members of the Government, and will
prove useful to Local Authorities in dealing with the housing question. But, for my part, I confess to
having a less sanguine expectation than I had three years ago, that much can be done by Metropolitan
Local Authorities to provide an effectual remedy for the admitted evils of overcrowding, etc., or to
supply the very real need of largely increased accommodation for the working classes. I am,
indeed, more than ever convinced that these matters, on any large scale, can be dealt with only by
the Central Authority; not that it can be said that, hitherto, the Central Authority have worked to
much purpose, despite their evident desire to improve the condition of the less prosperous classes of
workers. But I think there is great hope for the future in a direction which, after all, is the more
satisfactory, viz., by the self-help of the labouring classes themselves, rendered more and more
feasible, each year, by the increase of facilities for migration to the suburbs, by electric tramways,
cheap trains, and tube railways—a branch of the subject dealt with in these reports as far back
as 1889-1891, under the heading "Migration as a remedy for Overcrowding."
Schemes for carrying out the Acts must needs be costly in the Metropolis, whereas migration
by lessening the demand for lodgings in town, may lead to reduction in rents, and so enable the poorer
classes, who are compelled to live near their work, to obtain better accommodation at a cheaper rate.
The best housing obtainable in London at the present time, is that supplied by the artisans dwellings
erected by Public Companies, Philanthropic Associations, the County Council and others. But it
cannot be said to be cheap; and probably a rent equal to that paid for two or three rooms in such
blocks of dwellings, would provide a remunerative return for the outlay in building a cottage, within
a moderate distance of the centre of the Metropolis. By a large scheme for migration, overcrowding
would be diminished, and with it preventible disease resulting from this, the most perilous of
insanitary conditions. The model dwellings erected on the sites cleared under Housing Acts, are
not tenanted to any large (I might say to any) extent by the poorest grades of the labouring classes,
or by those who have been displaced by the clearances. Clerks, and superior artisans able to
command constant employment, commonly occupy these (relatively) healthy houses, and any
number of the like classes, would doubtless be forthcoming were the accommodation to be greatly
extended. These, however, are the classes for whom it should be practicable to provide out of
London. It is matter of common knowledge that, largely owing to the action of the County
Council, and others, in promoting legislation to secure cheap trains for the working classes,*
thousands of self-contained houses have been erected, by private enterprise, within a few miles of
London, which provide healthy homes for the classes above adverted to; and a great impetus has
been given to the movement within the last few years, by the still further growth of facilities for
cheap locomotion.
In illustration of the costliness of housing schemes in London, it may be mentioned that the
late Metropolitan Board of Works carried through 22 such 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. The work, as taken up by the County
Council, has proved no less costly. At the present time that body is carrying out housing schemes
on a large scale at Tottenham and near Croydon, but it is not expected that these will do much for
* Reference to the work of the County Council was made in the Annual Report for 1991, page 161, in which it was
observed that "an impetus would be given (by cheap train arrangements) to the erection of houses for the working classes in
the suburbs;" the hope being expressed " that care would be exercised to prevent the concessions being so misused as to lead to
the creation of slums outside London. The houses to be built (it was said) should not be too large, nor too crowded on space,
and working men should be encouraged to become the owners of their cottage homes."