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they were in past years able to take action if they found indecent occupation, no matter what the
actual accommodation may have been. Happily, the standard by-laws of the London county
council provide that no person, whatever the accommodation he may have, shall permit persons
of the opposite sexes over 12 years of age and not being persons living together as husband and
wife, to occupy the same sleeping apartment in a house let in lodgings. Not only is this provision more
rigid, but it also reduces the age from 14 to 12 years. The council can now apply in improvement
areas the same control in this matter as they exercised years ago under their own by-laws. It
may be mentioned that the enforcement of this provision was not faced with any real difficulty,
for in their action the council had public opinion behind them.
These legislative improvements, which have been secured in the past 12 months and which
will apply in improvement areas, represent the successful conclusion of efforts made by the
borough council during the course of some years and it is hoped that they will enable effective
steps to be taken to deal with the most important local housing problems, namely, occupation of
unsatisfactory basement rooms, and overcrowding.
THE FIVE YEARS PROGRAMME.
In a circular issued on the 6th April, 1933, the Minister of Health requested that each local
authority should prepare and submit to him a programme of slum clearance and improvement
of housing conditions to be carried out not later than 1938, and he asked that the statement should
contain the following information:—
(i) A list of areas in which clearance is necessary, with information of the number of houses
to be demolished in each, and of the number of their inhabitants.
(ii) A list of areas in which improvement by way of reconditioning or other means is necessary,
with information as in (i) above.
(iii) A time-table for the initiation, progress and completion of action to secure clearance or
improvement, as the case may be, of all these areas.
(iv) A time-table of re-housing co-ordinated with the displacements contemplated by the
time-table of clearance operations.
The Minister urged that each local authority should make an immediate beginning by the
declaration as clearance or improvement areas of such areas as could be dealt with at once. He
also asked that the programmes should be submitted to him not later than the 30th September,
1933.
The following is a brief statement of the programme adopted by the council on the 13th June,
1933:—
1. Clearance Areas.

2. Improvement Areas.