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144
Works, this did not prove to be the case, or only to a very
moderate extent; so that similar "improvements" resulted in
increased overcrowding of adjacent districts. "The Board," as I
stated in my Annual Report for 1888 (page 130), "carried out
some 22 schemes under Cross's Acts, whereby 59 acres of land
were acquired and cleared, on which accommodation has been provided
for 38,231 persons. The amount expended by the Board
in giving effect to the Acts exceeded a million and a half sterling
(or about £40 per head), this being irrespective of the outlay on
model dwellings erected on the cleared sites by such bodies as the
Peabody Trustees." "The Board," I added, "after taking
necessary steps for giving effect to eight additional schemes,
stayed proceedings under the Acts on account of the tremendous
cost to the ratepayers of carrying them into effect;" it having
been alleged, moreover, that "a third part of the cost of acquiring
the sites was due to the excessive valuation of property so bad that
demolition was the only possible remedy for the evils to which it
gave occasion." It is to be feared that, in the scheme under
consideration, the cost will be even greater, relatively, than that
of the aggregate of schemes carried through by the Metropolitan
Board; being estimated at £52 10s. per head of the population
dealt with—and this not to provide the people with dwellings, but
only to clear land, on which dwellings will be built by others, for
letting, to the best tenants obtainable, at current rates. For a
smaller outlay freehold cottages and gardens might be provided,
a little way out of London, and handed over, free of cost, to
the dispossessed people, whose travelling expenses, to and fro,
would amount to far less than they now pay in rent for the dens
in which they rot, and will have to pay for the rent of rooms in
the new dwellings, should they ever set foot therein.
No doubt every proper effort will be made to restrict compensation.
It is but too probable, nevertheless, that the owners of
the condemned houses will obtain more than the fair market value:
the 730 houses are estimated to cost £371,000, or, on an
average, £508 each, for buildings, compensations, &c. "In this