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145
HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
Conference on the London Housing Problem, Unhealthy
Areas.
The following resolutions were adopted by the Conference on
the London Housing Problem convened by the Workmen's
National Housing Council, viz.:—
1. That this Conference of delegates from working-class
organisations of London and surrounding districts, protests
against the existing high rents for house accommodation, the
tendency to build houses and rooms of small dimensions,
the continued existence of slums and the protracted shortage
of house room, with the consequent unhealthy crowding.
That as the above conditions directly tend to continue the
abnormally high infantile mortality and have a direct bearing
on the alarming increase of deaths in Asylums, Workhouses,
and Hospitals, this Conference declares these evils to be no
longer bearable, and calls upon the Government to provide
improved financial facilities for carrying out of Municipal
Housing Schemes by either or all of the following methods: —
(a) By empowering Local Authorities to issue non-interest
bearing notes.
(b) By grants from the Imperial Exchequer, and
(c) By a tax on site values, a proportion of the funds so
raised to be set aside for housing purposes.
This Conference urges the London County Council and
Borough and Urban District Councils in the area here represented,
to use their existing powers to a greater extent than
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