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official representations, under the Housing of the Working Classes Act,
1890, Part I. (insanitary areas), or Part II. (unhealthy dwelling-houses)
were, for the time, impracticable, whereas the serving and enforcing of
provisional schedules (or of legal notices, if required), under the
Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act, 1919 (Section 28), were all sufficient
for administrative purposes, with the result that the Borough
Council, with the approval of the Ministry of Health, appointed two
Housing Inspectors to devote their whole time to that particular work.
The record of the work that has been carried out already by these
officers more than justifies the Borough Council's decision and action.
All experience goes to prove that procedure under the Housing of
the Working Classes Act, 1890, Part I, with an official representation
of an insanitary area, with a view to such area being cleared and a
re-construction improvement scheme inaugurated, is unsatisfactory,
being dilatory and expensive in procedure, and, as a fact, does not
attain its object, viz. : the betterment of the homes of the people.
Once an area has been scheduled, practically no further interest is
taken in such area, either by the owners (ground landlords or lease
holders), or even by the1 Local Authority, with the result that the
houses in the area tend to, and do actually, become more insanitary
and more dilapidated. The question of re-housing is also a formidable
and serious one ; indeed, at the present time, displacement of tenants
and the re-housing of such tenants, when displaced, will prove to be (as
already stated) a stupendous task, if not a practical impossibility.
It is much better under existing economic conditions, and for
the other reasons stated, for a Local Authority such as a Borough
Council, to proceed under the Housing, Town Planning, etc., Act,
1919 (Section 28). It comes as a surprise, therefore, to find that
the London County Council has decided that the Victoria Place
and Ethelm Street area shall be dealt with as an insanitary area
under an improvement scheme, under Part I. of the Housing of
the Working Classes Act, 1890. Such improvement scheme would
take from five to ten years (if not longer) to carry out and would
involve wholesale displacement of tenants, whilst the individual houses
during that period would become more and more dilapidated and insanitary
through neglect, as naturally owners would be unwilling to
spend any money on scheduled insanitary areas.