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of the small blocks of insanitary areas if the method I proposed to the
Committee was carried out. I believe it is possible without great loss,
perhaps without any loss at all, to take such small blocks as Golden
Square and Silver Street and deal with them by gradual processes of
improvement.
My proposal would be, shortly, this:—That if such a block as
Golden Square and Silver Street were acquired, the Council should then
spread its action over a number of years. As soon as one house
became vacant it should be pulled down, every house so demolished
making the others less insanitary, until by process of time sufficient of
the houses have been demolished to leave the others with such
surroundings and improved spaces as to make them worthy of renovation.
This process might take a number of years, but it appears to me
to be the only way by which the Borough Council can attack these
areas, unless they are prepared to build some accommodation elsewhere
into which the tenants could be removed as time and circumstances
permitted, the insanitary property being demolished or reconstructed as
it became vacant.
The two most recent enactments which bear on this question are
the Housing Act, 1925, and the Tenement House By-laws, which were
made by the London County Council, and came into force on
5th March, 1926. Both of these are important pieces of legislation.
The 1925 Act is practically a consolidating Act, and the first two
sections of Part 3 are of especial interest to the Borough of Hampstead.
Thus, Section 57 states:—
(1) A local authority may provide housing accommodation for the
working classes:—
(а) By the erection of dwelling-houses on any land acquired or
appropriated by them;
(b) by the conversion of any buildings into dwelling-houses for the
working-classes;
(c) by acquiring houses suitable for the purpose;
(d) by altering, enlarging, repairing, or improving any houses or
buildings on land acquired as a site for the erection of dwelling.
houses for the working-classes, or any other houses an estate
or interest wherein has been acquired by the local authority.
(2) The local authority may alter, enlarge, repair or improve any house
so erected, converted or acquired, and may fit out, furnish and supply
any such house with all requisite furniture, fittings and conveniences.
Section 58 provides as follows:—
(1) A local authority shall have power under this Part of this Act:—
(a) To acquire any Jand, including any houses or other buildings
thereon, as a site for the erection of dwelling-houses for the
working-classes;