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inconvenience and delay, and the Council therefore on 21st June, 1921, decided to entrust the remainder
of the road and sewer work to Messrs. Thorne on a cost plus participating profit basis. Their estimate
amounted to £51,825, including their fee or profit, the use of plant, and provisional sums. Any saving
of actual cost below the estimate will be shared in stated proportions between the Council and the
contractors while any excess of actual over estimated cost will be deducted from the contractors' fee.
On 16th November, 1921, the Council accepted the tender of John Mowlem and Co., Ltd., amounting
to £2,195 for finishing certain roads on a small section of the estate developed before the war. On 9th
November, 1921, the Council sanctioned expenditure not exceeding £1,000 for temporary paving to
certain footways to meet the .convenience of tenants during the period of development.
At the end of 1921, 45 houses had been completed and nearly 450 others had been commenced.
As regards water supply the Council has given a guarantee to the Metropolitan Water Board
of 10 per cent, a year on the cost of the service mains required, and a guarantee jointly with the Tottenham
and Wood Green Urban District Councils of 10 per cent, a year on the proportionate cost of al2-inch
trunk main. The Council has arranged with the Tottenham Light, Heat and Power Company for the
supply of gas with the necessary mains, service pipes, fixtures and fittings (including gas stoves), subject
to the Council paying £7 a house towards the cost of the installation.
Roehampton
estate.
The Roehampton estate comprises about 147 acres, of which nearly 100 acres on the northern
part are being developed for working-class houses. The construction of roads and sewers on the first
section has been completed and the work is being continued on the second section under the contract
with Henry Woodham and Sons, Limited, at prices pro rata with the prices for the first section.
As regards buildings, tenders for the erection of 636 and 546 houses, or 1,182 in all, by Mr. F. G.
Minter and Leslie and Co., Ltd., respectively, were originally accepted at agreed prices with an "up-anddown
" clause in respect of rises or falls in the cost of labour and materials. Orders to begin work were
issued on 19th May, 1920, but, for various reasons, progress was much slower than expected, and by
8th July, 1921, only 41 houses, out of 618 proposed, were completed, although 417 others had been
commenced. In that month the Minister of Health suggested that it would be of advantage financially
to curtail the contracts. After prolonged negotiations the contractors accepted £40 a house as compensation
in respect of each house omitted, and the Council on 26th July, 1921, accordingly reduced the
number of houses to be erected under the contracts from 1,182 to approximately 624. The Minister of
Health agreed that the Council's position in regard to the future construction under the assisted scheme
of the omitted houses, for which fresh tenders will be invited in due course, would not be prejudiced.
The Council took over from the contractors materials already delivered and commitments properly
incurred which were surplus to the requirements for the reduced number of houses. By the end of
1921, 220 of the 624 houses on the first section had been completed and occupied.
Some houses have been fitted at a cost of £215 with experimental heating and cooking plant.
It is anticipated that the results will prove of great value in assisting the Council to decide the most
suitable and economical stoves for working class dwellings. Putney Park House has been adapted at a
cost of £234 for use as a temporary estate office, and a site, 2J acres in extent, and valued at
approximately £5,000, has been set aside for an elementary school. The frontage, about 435 feet, to
Upper Richmond-road, has been let on lease for 99 years at a rent of £358 a year for the erection of shops
or other approved buildings.
Becontree.
The council is acquiring unaer compulsory oraers a large estate, situated partly in tne urban
districts of Barking Town and Ilford, and partly in the parish of Dagenham in the rural district of
Romford. The total area scheduled is nearly 3,000 acres, but the exact extent of the land to be purchased
has not yet been determined. Development operations have so far been mainly confined to what is
known as the Ilford (No. 1) section comprising about 440 acres of which nearly 104 acres lie within the
rural district of Romford. The number of houses proposed on this section is 2,876.
The original undertaking involved the building of a new township with an ultimate population
of some 120,000 persons, and the whole work of organisation and the development of the site
was entrusted to one firm of master contractors, C. J. Wills and Sons, Limited, the work being paid
for on a cost plus participating profit basis. The contract provides for the payment of fixed sums as
remuneration on stated amounts of expenditure or actual cost, and it is open to the Council to suspend
or cease operations at any stage. Work was commenced on 1st September, 1920, and good progress
has been made with the construction of roads and sewers and the erection of houses. At the end of
1921, 130 houses had been completed and about 2,200 others were in various stages of construction.
Aggregate being available on the site many houses are being built in concrete, but, as the difficulties in
obtaining materials and skilled labour which prompted this course have been very largely overcome,
brick construction is being more generally employed.
The limitation of the programme at the instance of the Minister of Health affected very largely
the future development of Becontree. The Minister urged the Council to concentrate all effort on the
development of the Ilford (No. 1) section, and on 9th February, 1921, he intimated that he was not
prepared at that time to agree to any expenditure at Becontree other than that required for that
section. The desirability of preparing plans for other sections was very fully discussed with the
Minister and on 3rd October, 1921, he stated that he was prepared to authorise the Council to proceed
with further houses up to the number of 1,000 in the south-eastern corner of the estate. The Council
approved this proposal on 1st November, and lay-out plans for the section, which will be known as the
Dagenham (No. 2) section, have been submitted for the Minister's approval. The question of sewerage
and sewage disposal is being dealt with by the Romford Rural District Council.
The proposal, provisionally agreed to in 1920, for the diversion and construction of the Ripple-road
as an arterial road through the southern part of the estate was abandoned and subsequently, early in
1921, the Essex County Council decided to widen the existing road. The Council on 26th April, 1921,