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Clause 6 (Amendment of Artizans and Labourers Dwellings
Improvement Acts, 1875 to 1885), is directed to the question
of compensation, and is designed to remedy defects in
the Acts which have made the application of them so costly.
There being no scope for these (Cross's) Acts in this parish, we
are interested'in the proposed amendments (which appear to be
sufficient and reasonable) only as contributors to the Metropolitan
Consolidated Rate, out of which all charges incurred in
the execution of the Acts are defrayed.
Your Yestry petitioned Parliament against this Bill.
Housing of the Working Classes (London).— The
following summary of the Bill, which appeared in the Times,
contains all necessary information, there being no probability
of the measure passing into law this Session The powers
which the Bill would confer on the 'local authority' are those
of buying, selling, letting, hiring, and laying out land, and also
of building. One object for which these powers might be
exercised would be to provide suitable dwellings inside or outside
the Metropolitan area for the use of the population engaged
in the industry of that area. A second object would be to
provide lodgings, baths, wash-houses, halls, or other structures
for the use, convenience, or health of the population; and
another would be to provide open spaces for the same purpose.
Finally, land might be acquired within the Metropolitan area
or within five miles of it, which in the judgment of the local
authority ought to be acquired 'with a view to the expansion of
the population.' The 'local authority' to which these powers
are intrusted by the Bill is to be any representative body elected
by the inhabitants which may be established in the future by
Parliament. Meanwhile its duties would be performed by
seven Commissioners, three of whom would be paid, and all
appointed by the President of the Local Government Board.
Compulsory powers of acquiring land are conferred by the Bill ;
and it is left to the Local Government Board to decide in each
case, after local inquiry, whether there are any valid objections