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67
dealt with by the London County Council probably during the next
two or three years, but there is no immediate prospect of any of the
other Areas receiving any such attention at present.
A small Area in the North West Ward has been inspected by
the Public Health and Housing Committees and reported upon as
being in need of demolition and rebuilding, and representations have
been made to the London County Council asking if they have any
objection to this Council carrying out a reconstruction scheme on
this site, but nothing further has materialised at the present time.
I very much fear that unless drastic measures are adopted
within a few years the housing conditions of Greenwich generally
will have deteriorated so much that the whole of the lower portion
of Greenwich will have become one huge slum area.
It is interesting to review briefly the steps which have been
taken with respect to the provision of working-class houses during
the last few years.
In 1919 the Greenwich Borough Council proposed a scheme
for new houses and conversions of larger houses into tenements,
providing for 464 families. When this scheme was brought to the
notice of the Housing Board of the Ministry of Health in 1920 we
were seriously taken to task for having been so modest in our
proposals and it was then agreed between the Ministry and the
Council that the needs of the Borough would approximately be
met by the provision of 6,000 houses and that it should be the
aim of the Council to provide at least 1,000 houses per annum.
A large amount of time and effort has been expended by Committees
in furthering such proposals and various schemes have been placed
before the Ministry; from time to time tenders have been applied
for, received, and agreed upon for the erection of various blocks of
houses and in 1921 there were 73 such houses built and occupied,
together with larger houses which were bought and converted into
tenements thus providing accommodation for 50 additional families.
In 1922 there were a further 159 houses so built and occupied. In
1923, 80 more houses were erected and occupied but in 1924, the
year under review, there were no new houses actually ready for
occupation. There has certainly been some increase in this
respect during the early months of this present year, the result will,
however, appear in my next Report, so that during the 5 years
362 tenements and houses have been provided by the Council in
lieu of the 1,000 per annum which it had been agreed should be aimed
at.