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27
Circular 1331 of the Ministry of Health relating to Part 1 of
the Housing Act, 1930, requests that the Local Authority proceed
to:-
1. Prepare and adopt a programme the components of which
should be
(a) A list of the areas in which clearance is necessary,
with information of the number of houses to be
demolished in each, and the number of their
inhabitants.
(b) A list of the areas in which improvement, by way of
reconditioning and otherwise, is necessary, with
information as above.
2. Make an immediate beginning with a programme by a
declaration as to clearance or improvement areas of such
areas as can be immediately dealt with, and by making
the necessary orders.
The programme should, so far as practicable, be drawn up on
the basis of clearing all areas that require clearance not later than
1938.
At the time of the 1901 census there were some 1,500 houses
in the Dagenham district. This number has since been reduced
by demolition, including a number pulled down when the L.C.C.
were developing their housing estate at Beeontree. The Local
Authority has been instrumental in obtaining the demolition of
a number which could not be rendered fit for habitation, and the
owners of some found it expedient to demolish the properties to
enable them undertake more profitable development of their land.
Round about the year 1900 there was some development in
the Chadwell Heath Ward—apart from this, between the years
1900 and 1919 there could have been very little housing development
in this area as the 1921 census disclosed that there were only
1,871 structurally separate dwellings. The property in this district
can be divided, roughly, into the older, erected prior to 1900, and
the new. For the purpose of this report every house built before
1900 has been under review with the particular object of determining
whether the house is likely to require consideration from
the point of view demolition, within the next five years. There
have been and are at the moment no houses which can advantageously
be grouped as clearance or improvement areas. The activities
of the Council during the past few years have resulted in the
demolition of a certain number of houses, these being dealt with