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Further, in addition to the strictly official action suggested,
private development schemes must be at once re-started, or commenced
in the case of new schemes. Whilst appreciative of the
help which these private schemes have given in the past in connection
with the bettering of the sanitary conditions of the respective
districts concerned, the Council might, with advantage, insist upon
the urgent necessity for the immediate resumption of building
operations on the sites which have already been cleared, or are in
process of being cleared, of the dilapidated and worn-out houses
which formerly existed, and still exist, thereon. The Duchy of
Cornwall Kennington Estate calls for immediate and energetic renewed
action, as does also the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' Brixton
Estate, as war conditions are now subsiding and labour and materials
will, it is expected, become comparatively easier to obtain. The
schemes should be proceeded with at once, but only by emptying
and demolishing the remaining old, worn-out houses in proportion
as new houses are erected, or old houses re-planned into separately
contained tenemented houses, and become ready for occupation,
thereby avoiding displacement of tenants. Unfortunately, due to
the War, there has been a serious set-back during the last five years,
and the dilapidated and worn-out houses have become more dilapidated
and more worn out. During the same period, house-to-house
inspections have been practically in abeyance, by order of the
Council, which, in addition, has had to show a certain amount of
unavoidable leniency towards Owners owing to labour and materials
difficulties.
The policy adopted by the Council and the late Vestry of
making Owners keep their existing properties in repair and in a
reasonably habitable condition has been applied throughout the
whole of Lambeth, but, naturally, chiefly in the Inner Wards, where
such a policy is most wanted. The success of the policy is shown
by the improved health statistics of the whole of Lambeth district
for the past 20 years, the statistics being, cœteris paribus, as satisfactory
as those for the Marsh Ward and the Inner Wards of the
Borough generally.
I am still strongly of opinion that the larger houses which are at
present standing empty, or which are so old, dilapidated and worn
out as to be ripe for closure or demolition, should be re-modelled and
replanned and converted into separately contained flats or tenements.
Many houses in the Kennington Road and Kennington