View report page

244
There is one aspect of housing vitally concerning health and
welfare departments which is likely to prove of major importance,
which can be resolved only by vision and long-term measures and
which could benefit from such a "breathing" space. It is in respect
of the elderly. It is common knowledge that their numbers will
increase until the middle 1970s, after which they will probably
remain static or decline very slowly. If present circumstances
persist, local authorities will have a duty to provide accommodation
for these people. Let us build small dwellings and induce the
midde-aged to move into them now so that they can grow old in
them and form stable relationships with their environment. At
the age of 55 years people are still flexible and resilient enough to
sustain a change which at 70 would be so disruptive and perhaps
catastrophic.
It is government policy to reduce hospital accommodation for
geriatrics and the building of new local authority homes is
restricted. Such a scheme as outlined above would anticipate the
resultant increase in the need for supportive services in the home
by eliminating many of the difficulties inherent in present day
dwellings. Designs could also incorporate facilities for wheelchairs
and handrails while a telephone would be as natural a fixture as a
water closet. A house designed for the young could become a
burden for the old but one designed for the elderly is hardly likely
to impose restraint or hardship on the young.
As has so often been said, in urban areas clearance of substandard
dwellings is almost the only method remaining to local
authorities by which they can provide housing for their overcrowded
and poorly housed residents. However, if posterity is not
to be left a legacy of psychological problems, local authorities must
proceed on these lines with the utmost prudence and humanity.
It must be remembered that slum clearance means the uprooting
of families from life-long environments and involves the destruction
of well-established and successful communities which modern
planners have seldom managed to reproduce.
New Legislation
The Housing (Rate of Interest) Order, 1968
This Order came into operation on 1st March, 1968.
It applies to England and Wales, and increases from 5¾% to
7% per annum the rate of interest on expenses incurred by a local
authority under Section 10 of the Housing Act, 1957, where after
29th February, 1968, the local authority either demands payment
of those expenses or by order declares those expenses to be payable
by instalments.