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116
HOUSING.
Housing is the major problem in Bethnal Green's
health. My predecessor put the position very cogently
in a special report on this subject in the early part of
1929 when he said that " the population is too great
to be housed properly within the area of the borough."
The fact that a great deal of the housing is thoroughly
unsatisfactory in itself accentuates the evil of the overcrowding
and congestion which prevail in the borough.
As my predecessors have pointed out, the solution of
the problem is beyond the capacity of the Borough
Council and is obviously bound up with the general
question of housing in London and Greater London.
Notwithstanding the improvements effected by the
Borough Council and voluntary associations through
local Housing Schemes and the large amount of additional
accommodation which has been provided on the
outskirts of London by public and private enterprise,
it is clear that only the fringe of the real needs of the
situation have so far been touched. There has unfortunately
been a lack of vision and comprehension in
the treatment of London Housing, especially in the
defective correlation of housing with places of employment
and means of transit, to say nothing of the
economic circumstances of the families needing improved
accommodation. We have the ironical situation
that families are seriously overcrowded in Bethnal
Green and willing and desirous of moving while
accommodation has often been available at places 10
or 12 miles away, but as far out of their reach as though
it were in another land because of their inability to
meet the rent and added travelling expenses, to say
nothing of the sacrifice of time and temper in long
journeys in overcrowded buses, trams and trains.
The Borough Council and its officers might well
be excused for despair at the slow rate of progress in
housing, a classic illustration of which is the Brady
Street area originally represented to the L.C.C. by the
Borough Medical Officer of Health as long ago as 1904,