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111
GENERAL.
Notwithstanding the size of the problem presented
in the foregoing figures, I think the housing situation
of the Borough is now more hopeful than it has been
for many years.
No one can expect such a longstanding and widespread
evil to be abolished suddenly by a wave of
the hand. The great step forward is that the actual
cases of overcrowding are now recorded and systematic
efforts are being made to deal with them. The
progress, at present inevitably slow, will increase
as the London County Council housing schemes get
under way. With regard to the other and perhaps
more important aspect of Housing-Slum Clearance
—the facts and figures already given show what
substantial progress is being made. The completion
of the Hackney Marshes Scheme will provide a much
needed pool of accommodation to enable clearance
schemes to be carried out in the Borough on a larger
scale and at a greater speed. If, as I hope, it should
prove possible to apply the redevelopment procedure
to other large areas in the Borough we may
reasonably expect a dramatic transformation in its
appearance within the next 5 or 6 years. Residents
who have been compelled to endure overcrowding
and unhealthy living conditions in old houses, too
closely packed together in narrow streets, ill lit, ill
ventilated and inconvenient, may find it difficult
to realise that a totally different kind of planning
and construction of Bethnal Green housing on modern
lines is not only possible but probable.
It is, however, important that some sense of the
significance of present changes should be conveyed
to the people in order to elicit their intelligent and
friendly co-operation. All housing schemes involve
a great deal of disturbance of accustomed routine in
domestic life. People who have lived for many