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The whole matter is somewhat vague, and it would not appear
to offer any great help to local housing needs, unless the intention
is to offer to the emigrants, work in approximately the same area.
It was clear from the information obtained during the Housing
Survey that over 90% of the residents of the Borough who were
relatively employed worked either in the metropolis, or in the
Borough and its immediate neighbourhood. For such people,
removal into Sussex would be a very mixed blessing.
5.There remains the question of how far private enterprise could
assist in dealing with the problem. Between the wars private
enterprise did make a great contribution to housing, but most of
the houses erected in this way were for sale. There is no doubt a
proportion—though not a very large one—of the people on the
Housing Waiting List who could solve their own difficulties by this
means. But circumstances are different now from what they were
after the first war. Increases in taxation and in the cost of living
have been proportionately greater than increases in income, and
unless the costs of building can be substantially reduced, there
would not be a large number of families on the waiting list who
could contemplate the purchase of new houses.
In this matter there is another point to be considered. Since
the Council considers that there is no more land available in the
Borough on which to erect Corporation houses, would not the
reasons which led to this decision make it impossible for private
enterprise to obtain land in the Borough on which to build?
If no new houses can be built inside the Borough, and if there
are objections to increasing the density of housing units in some
parts of the Borough, the only possible solution is mass emigration.
The number of houses will remain practically the same as at present
and those who are now inadequately housed will have to leave
Beckenham and find homes elsewhere—a very difficult matter,
since most districts to-day are very fully occupied in trying to
provide for their own residents.
One of the great difficulties to-day in this question of
Housing, for all Local Government districts which are merely
sections of an extensive area of urbanisation, is that families
tend to move from one place to another in the hope of being able
to secure accommodation. They find that nobody wants them,
that they are in fact a population of "displaced persons." If
more houses are being built in one area than in another they
flock to that area, and, it is easy to see that such an area could have
a permanent waiting list of considerable size. There appear to be
only two answers to this particular difficulty. One is that every
district should really look after its own people, and the other is
that housing needs should be assessed and the provision of housing
units carried out at a Regional level and not at a Local Authority
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