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44
local attraction in the way of proximity to the place of employment
to retain the residents here. If this be so then for years it can
be expected there will be a repetition of the continuous stream of
persons and families coming and going. This will certainly keep
the houses in occupation and in due course might even possibly
end the waiting list of applicants for the London County Council
houses.
But in what way are the houses to be occupied in the futurenot
merely of this generation to day who have transferred, but
the future occupants who must be there to justify this colossal
expenditure. At one time it was the practice of the London
County Council to accept no responsibility for the housing of the
children of the tenants. Presumably if they wanted to get married
they had to fend for themselves and to find, while they were here,
accommodation, when their parents before them failed so much
that these houses had to be built for them. Probably most
families solve this problem by the young married couple living with
the family until the overcrowded conditions became a nuisance.
The present position, so far as concerns this estate, is that consideration
is now given to the sons of tenants and to the married
daughters whose husbands either reside in or are employed in the
County of London. The limitation imposed by the latter part
of this policy is disruptive to the stability of the district, in that
those persons who might be housed here and who are working
elsewhere will tend to leave the neighbourhood. Presumably
matters will solve themselves by the older members of the younger
generation on first marrying living with their parents, and then
as their family grows, finding alternative accommodation. Meanwhile
their younger brothers and sisters are marrying and repea
the process until in due course there remains only one child, who on
marrying, remains and carries on the occupation of the house—the
original tenants meantime having become aged and being taken
care of by the younger adults who have their own family growing
up. By this means, the population will have become more normal
in its age distribution, as by then there will be the ordinary Proportion
of older-aged persons.
There is however, another side to this problem. The population
of the country as a whole will, in the course of a few years,
reach its maximum, after which there will be a gradual decline.
Coupled with this is the alteration occurring in the age distribution
of the population due to the declining birth rate and to the reduction
in the death rate, the effect of which will be to increase the numbers
of the older, at the expense of the younger age groups. This
will mean a diminished demand for houses and a lessened inclination
to transfer, populations becoming less mobile. The 1931 census
showed, compared with that of 1921, a reduction in the average
size of families and an increase in the number of families. This