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105
Council has power to deal with workmen's dwellings or lodginghouses—purchasing
land and erecting dwellings (including cottages)
thereon, or purchasing existing premises and converting
them, or adapting them by reconstruction or otherwise, into tenemented
houses for the working classes, These powers extend to
land, or existing buildings, both within and without the Borough
boundaries. At the time of writing this Report, I am happy to
be able to state that the Borough Council of Lambeth is considering
what action shall be taken as mentioned above.
That there is much good work to be done on the lines mentioned
above no one will gainsay who has had any practical experience
of the Housing question in Lambeth (or elsewhere).
The Inner Districts are overcrowded, and the Public Health Acts
in respect thereof, practically in abeyance—it being rightly felt
that no stringent action should be taken to prevent overcrowding
in Lambeth until extra accommodation has been provided into
which the displaced tenants can move, more especially when one
remembers the amount of displacement that is nccessarily taking
place in connection with the extension schemes of the London
and South-Western Railway in North Lambeth, and the enlargements
of business premises (factories, etc.).
CUSTOMS AND INLAND REVENUE ACTS.
During 1900, certificates (carrying exemption from, or abatement
of, Inhabited House Duty) have been applied for in connection
with 268 tenements, and of these 130 have been granted
unconditionally, 138 have been granted conditionally, whilst in
no single instance has a certificate been refused, although the
sanitary standard required is a high one.