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Slum clearance
Extensive surveys of housing conditions had been completed in the period prior to the
outbreak of war in 1939, but as a result of the war further proceedings in a number of
clearance areas which had been represented to the Council were abandoned and the staff
engaged on this work dispersed.
In 1945 housing conditions had vastly changed—many houses had been removed by
bombing, while most of those that remained suffered from its effects or were in serious
disrepair through neglect. Demobilised servicemen came home to an acute housing shortage
and it was not unusual to find them, with wives and children, living in restricted and bad
housing conditions with their parents' families.
Slum clearance work was resumed in 1947 leading to the representation of four small
areas in 1948, but it was clear that a major effort was required if the worst housing conditions
were to be tackled as urgently as the situation demanded. The Council decided,
first, that six known large areas in Bethnal Green, Camberwell, Fulham, Southwark and
Stepney should be re-surveyed and reported upon, and, secondly, that the metropolitan
borough councils should be asked to carry out surveys of their boroughs to determine the
extent of the problem. As a result of this and the detailed discussions which followed with
the borough councils a joint programme of slum clearance for the period 1951-1955 was
agreed, with the Council undertaking to clear 6,842 houses and the borough councils
3,290 houses. The six priority areas (totalling 31 acres and 1,291 houses) were dealt with
by 1952 and the joint programme proceeded without undue delay.
The Housing Repairs and Rent Act, 1954, required all local authorities in England and
Wales, including the Council and the metropolitan borough councils, to submit joint
proposals for dealing with unfit houses. A further five-year programme (1956-1960) for
the administrative county was drawn up in respect of 7,218 houses, of which the Council
undertook to deal with 4,094. In 1960 sufficient progress had been made to enable a further
programme for the years 1961-1965 to be drawn up and this year the first steps have been
taken to draw up a programme for the years 1966-1970.
During the fifteen years from 1948 to 1963 the Council has declared some 713 areas,
containing 25,404 unfit houses, to be clearance areas.
In two Areas of Comprehensive Development designated by the Council under the
Town and Country Planning Act, 1947, one in Bermondsey of 121 acres, and one in Poplar/
Stepney of 1,312 acres, clearance of individual unfit houses by Declaration of Unfitness
Orders under Town Planning powers was commenced in 1949 and continued up to the
end of 1964; 738 unfit houses were dealt with in this way. While unfitness for habitation
is determined by the standards of the Housing Acts for this purpose, the provisions require
it to be shown that the unfit houses cannot be made fit for habitation at reasonable cost.