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We have carefully considered the representations made to us by your Medical Officer
of Health. In view of the fact that it is practically impossible whilst the Rent Restrictions
Act remains in force to obtain possession of dwelling.houses, even if they are not in all
respects properly habitable, unless some alternative accommodation for the tenants is
forthcoming, we can see no other means of successfully dealing with the problem except by
the provision of alternative accommodation.
No site for this purpose can be found in the City, but we are advised by your Engineer
that he has inspected various sites and has in view one within three miles of the City on which
balcony.type tenement dwellings, containing about 420 rooms in all, can be erected to give
accommodation to about 600 people, at an estimated cost of £95,000 inclusive of the land.
The gross annual income from the dwellings, if the rents were based on the average rent
now being paid by the tenants in the City who would be dehoused, viz., 2s. 9d. per room per
week, would be £3,003, and after deducting 25 per cent, for maintenance, administration,
empties, etc., there would be a net annual income of £2,252.
The annual cost of a loan of £95,000, calculated at the rate of 5½ per cent, per annum
to include interest and sinking fund for sixty years, will, it is estimated, be £5,225 per annum,
so that the net loss on the undertaking for that period may be put down as £2,973 per annum,
which on the present rateable value of the City represents less than 1 /9th of a penny in the £.
The erection of these tenement dwellings, as your Honourable Court will doubtless
appreciate, is proposed as the best solution in our opinion of the problem to be dealt with,
and in the circumstances we cannot see our way to advise that it is properly an undertaking
to which the Government should be expected to contribute, and as far as the rehousing of
the persons from the Queen's Court, Vine Street, Minories Area Improvement Scheme is
concerned, your Honourable Court will doubtless remember that it has already decided
to bear the whole cost of that Scheme.
Having given the whole subject our earnest and prolonged consideration, we beg to
recommend to your Honourable Court that housing accommodation for approximately
600 persons should be provided on a site outside the City at a total estimated cost of £95,000,
subject to the approval of the Ministry of Health, that no Government contribution be sought
towards the cost, and that we be authorised to take such steps as may be required to carry
the proposal into execution with as little delay as possible, including, if necessary, a compulsory
order for the acquisition of the site selected.
All which we submit to the judgment of your Honourable Court. Dated this twenty.
fourth day of June, 1924.
Signed on behalf of the Committee,
S. ALDERTON,
Chairman.
The above report sets out the state of affairs as existing in the City at the
present time. The Court of Common Council adopted the report and accepted
the recommendation of the Sanitary Committee to the effect that tenement
dwellings to accommodate about 600 persons be erected for the purpose, on a site
outside the City, at a total estimated cost of £95,000, subject to the approval of
the Ministry of Health, and that the Committee be authorised to take all necessary
steps to carry the matter into execution.
Subsequent to this the Committee authorised the purchase of a site in
Shepherdess Walk, Shoreditch. Application has been made to the Ministry for
the purpose of compulsorily acquiring this site and a public enquiry will be held in
the month of March, 1925. The site chosen will house about 500 persons.
The acquisition of this site and the erection of tenements as contemplated
will not, however, represent the final action in respect to housing those City residents
whose homes are at the present time unfit for human habitation ; further
action will require to be taken on the completion of the above proposals.
OFFICIAL STATISTICS OF HOUSING.—The following particulars have
been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Health.