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115
After full debate at a subsequent meeting, the Council
adopted recommendations of the Committee to the effect:—
(a) That the Council, subject to an estimate to be approved by the Finance
Committee, do forthwith undertake the erection of a model lodginghouse,
to accommodate from 300 to 350 persons, on a plot of vacant
land now in possession of the Council, in the Shelton Street (St. Giles')
area.
(i) That application be made to the Secretary of State, as the confirming
authority, and if need be to the Local Government Board, for sanction
to the appropriation of so much of the vacant site in question as may
be required for the purpose.
(c) That it be referred to the Housing of the Working Classes Committee
to give effect to the above recommendations, with power to vary the
plan and design of the proposed building, and, if found expedient
to substitute a fresh one, involving no greater cost.
The result of the new departure thus taken by the Council
will be awaited with much interest.
The Report of the Committee, containing the above recommendation,
furnishes other indications of the lines on which the
Council, through the Committee, will attempt the solution of
the vexed question of the Housing of the Working Classes,
especially those of the lower grades. The comprehensiveness
of the report may be inferred from the title headings of its
several parts, viz.:—
1. As to the means available for securing the sanitaiy
condition of existing dwellings.
2. As to the provision of further and better accommodation
for the working classes in the Metropolis, considered with
reference to—-
(a) The re-housing of persons displaced by clearances or improvements.
(b) The further provision of accommodation to meet the increase of the
population.
(c) The provision of "clean, healthy homes for people poorer than those
who at present avail themselves of the existing artizans' dwellings,"
referred to under the heads—
(i.) Unfurnished tenements and small cottage tenements,
(ii.) Furnished tenements; and
(iii.) Common lodging-houses.