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147
new building the Council was prepared to agree to the surrender of the licence in
respect of the old beerhouse. The Minister of Health, however, took exception to
the financial details of the proposal and the matter has since remained in abeyance.
Arrangements were made during the year for the rates on houses at Becontree
in the parish of Dagenham and the urban district of Ilford to be collected weekly
with the rents subject to payment to the Council of a commission on the amount of
the rates collected.
Under the main contract, completed in 1923, for the development of
Bellingham (176i) acres, 2,090 houses and flats were erected. Two or three small
sites remain on which it is proposed, with the approval of the Minister of Health,
to erect about 30 houses, which will qualify for State aid under the Assisted Scheme
of 1919. During the year under review the Lewisham Metropolitan Borough
Council agreed to take over and undertake the maintenance of the roads on the
estate subject to payment by the Council of £2,275 in respect of works still to be
done to the carriageways and footways. On 13th May, 1924, the Council agreed to
let a plot of land facing Bellingham Green for the erection of a doctor's house and
surgerv. The building has been completed.
Bellingham.
The Council in 1920 acquired under compulsory powers about 470 acres of land
at Grove-park, Lewisham, for development for housing purposes. The order made
by the Council in 1923 for the compulsory purchase of about 66^ acres of additional
land for rounding ofE the site was confirmed by the Minister of Health on 3rd January,
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Downham.
The development of what is known as the Bromley Road (No. 1) section by
the erection of 2,000 houses and flats of varying types was undertaken during the
year. The dwellings comprise 100 two-roomed flats, 689 three-roomed cottages,
499 four-roomed non-parlour cottages, 494 four-roomed parlour cottages, and
218 five-roomed cottages.
After due consideration of all the circumstances, the Council came to the
conclusion that the only practicable course to ensure the provision of the requisite
number of houses within a reasonable time was to entrust the whole work of development
to one large firm of contractors possessing adequate powers of organisation
and the necessary resources. It was felt that only by entrusting the whole of the
work, i.e., houses, roads and sewers, to one firm could the financial and time-saving
advantages accruing from service railway connections across the estate be fully
secured. It was further recognised that in the absence of very definite particulars
of what work would be ultimately required, the financial control of a firm price
contract would be difficult and complicated and, moreover, that owing to unstable
conditions in the building trade and elsewhere the tendency would be for tenderers
to make large provisions for contingencies. With a cost price contract these
difficulties would be non-existent, and the Council decided to adopt this form of
contract with a variable fee or commission to the contractors.
The Council furnished to the tenderers estimates of the prime cost of typical
houses, roads and sewers, and the tenderers were asked to quote a percentage by
which they considered the Council's estimate should be diminished or increased,
the result in effect becoming the " standard prime value " of the house in respect
of which the quotation was made. The contract provides that the contractors,
while being able to retain one-fourth of any saving below the " standard prime
value " (i.e., their tendered estimate of the cost) of the work, will forfeit up to
75 per cent, of a scale fee a like proportion of any excess if the value is exceededs
and it also provides for the " value " being independent of fluctuations in wage,
and cost of materials. Although this type of contract is essentially a cost contract
whereby the contractor is guaranteed against loss, his commission or profit remuneration
is made to depend very largely upon the amount of skill imported into the
conduct of his operations.
In response to a widely published advertisement 33 tenders were received, and