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237
HOUSING
Recent Reports have dwelt at length on modern housing design
and estates and their effects upon the general health of associated
communities. There are, of course, many other aspects of the
housing situation of equal importance. Prior to 1939, local authority
housing problems had been encountered mainly in the lower
income groups and, until the Housing Act of 1949, housing powers
were restricted to the benefit of the working classes only. The
scene has changed. Today, this vital question of obtaining accommodation
covers most income groups who now seek local authority
assistance for housing, the solution to which has not, so far,
been forthcoming.
Homelessness and housing are inter-related subjects which, from
a local authority point of view, ought not to be dealt with separately
or in isolation. However, such is the perverse nature of man that
while most of the homeless struggle to obtain a roof over their
heads, those already housed strive for greater living space and
those with greater living space spare no effort to improve their
standards of living and clamour for garage facilities—all of which
intensify problems confronting housing departments, especially in
urban areas. Indeed, a situation has now been reached where many
applicants for council housing turn down offers of accommodation
from local authorities for a variety of reasons, some of which
would seem trivial to the homeless. It was estimated that in the
G.L.C. area, about 60% of all people nominated for flats or houses
declined first offers and that, in the previous 5 years, of 47,466
families nominated for new homes only 23,309 became tenants.
Nevertheless, it is indisputable that "hearth stones" are the
foundations of a home, a community and a society for, without
a secure domicile, life has little meaning or purpose. But a viable
community depends not only on the provision of dwellings but
also upon their proximity to industry, business and cultural
centres. Oddly enough, this was precisely the formula adopted for
our now old and out-dated "twilight" areas so roundly condemned
by many modern planners whose schemes have tended to be on
the lines of complete destruction with novel but less effective
methods of replacement.
What seems to have been lacking since the war is "vision". In
a period of anxiety to please and as a matter of expediency, authorities
have allowed extension of high-rise accommodation despite
being privy to the serious problems, both present and future, associated
with similar, if less common, dwellings erected at the turn
of the century.
By consensus, "point block" type of building does not provide