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extreme hardship for the local Council in having to provide
accommodation. The position, too, has an adverse effect on the
stability of the population, as it opposes the residence here of those
who work in the district, while entitling to the accommodation
those who, because of their place of work, will tend to leave.
Sufficient care was not taken in the selection of the tenants,
some being unemployed when they came here, others finding that
they cannot afford the extra rent and transport charges. This
results in the transfer of large volumes of population, for some
years the transfer figure being as high as 12 per cent. At the
date of the census, one-twelfth of the population could, in relation
to the place of employment of the wage-earner, have been more
suitably housed in one of the other estates of the Council.
General Consideration of Housing Estates.
Apart from consideration of the benefits to health of residence
here, there is another side to the question of developing estates
of this magnitude. It is not sufficient to build a town of this size
and leave it to chance as to what future development there will
be. On the financial side, there is the tremendous expenditure
involved not only in the erection of houses, including laying of
roads and drainage, but the expenditure of such sums as a quarter
of a million pounds for the erection of a plant for sewage disposal,
the provision of schools and hospital accommodation, etc. While
to the new district the provision of these services involves expenditure
of fresh money, the reduction in the total population in the
original areas of habitation does little or nothing towards diminishing
the costs of providing the similar services for the remaining
population. To justify the expenditure, it is essential to be
certain that the money is being spent on something that will be
used for a long period of time.
V\ ith regard to this estate, at the moment, it is very doubtful
whether anyone can substantiate the contention that such will
be the case. The future of the estate is unknown. One assumes
that houses such as these, within easy reach of London, will
always find occupants—but is this surmise correct? The natural
amenities of the district are not sufficient of themselves to attract
a population to live here, while on the other hand, the district is
not conveniently situated with regard to the centres of occupation—
that is to say, that those working out of the district will probably
remove from the area. If there is no increase in the proportion
of local labour employed in the local factories, the employees
will be housed partly by private enterprise in the area but largely
by private enterprise in adjoining areas. There will then be no