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APPENDIX.
Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth.
HOUSING IN LAMBETH.
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
There are two methods of dealing with the Housing Question,
viz., from (a) the ideal standpoint and (b) the practical standpoint.
All are agreed as to the former method (the ideal) being out of the
question, entailing the pulling down of all old, dilapidated and wornout
houses, and the replacing of them by up-to-date houses, forming
part of a Garden City Scheme. At least, in regard to Lambeth
Borough, this ideal method is out of the question, as it would involve
a third, if not more, of the whole of the houses in the Borough —what
are known as the Inner Wards—being pulled down. The latter
method (the practical) is the alternative ; and even this method is
beset with many difficulties, due to existing legislation, the present
powers and duties of Sanitary Authorities, equity and (last but not
least) finance.
Hitherto the trend of legislation has been to give increased
powers to Sanitary Authorities over owners, and recent legislation
has endeavoured to simplify, and has succeeded somewhat in simplifying,
the method to be carried out in regard to the closing by Sanitary
Authorities of individual dwelling-houses, or small collections of
dwelling-houses, which are unfit for human habitation, and the
rendering of the same fit for human habitation by, and at the cost of,
the owner, or owners, concerned.
It must not be thought that the Lambeth Borough Council and
its predecessor (the late Vestry of the Parish of Lambeth) have done
nothing for the sanitary housing of the Lambeth people, nor must it
be forgotten that assistance has been rendered in this same direction
by Private Development Schemes which have been carried out in the
past by such Owners as the Duchy of Cornwall, the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, the London and South Western and other Railway
Companies, and certain Private Firms. The London County
Council, as the Educational Authority, has also assisted by clearing
sites for Schools.