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grounds for calling the Conference were set out in a circular letter,
which contained the two following paragraphs:—
"The recent consolidation and amendment of the laws relating to
the Housing of Working Classes have had the effect of materially extending
the obligations which devolve upon the Vestries and District
Boards, as well as upon the London County Council, so far as regards
the housing of the working people of London.
"It is with a sense of the responsibility that the new Act places
upon the Council, and with the hope that some mutual understanding
may be arrived at between the Council and the District Authorities, both
as to the bearings of some of the provisions of the new Act, and as to the
methods of procedure to be followed under it, that the Council has
resolved to invite a Conference between the Committee of its body
charged with the matter, and representatives of the Local Authorities."
The Conference was held at the County Hall on the 5th
December, every Vestry and District Board having responded to
the invitation, by appointing two of its members, with the Vestry
Clerk and the Medical Officer of Health, as delegates. The
Conference was presided over by Earl Compton, chairman of the
Housing of the Working Classes Committee, who, in his opening
address, dealt with the subject-matter of Part 2 of the Act,
under the three several headings:—{1) Houses unfit for human
habitation; (2) Obstructive buildings; and (3) Improvement
schemes. The only resolutions adopted by the Conference, upon
the motion of Mr. Herbert C. Saunders, Q.C. (Kensington Vestry)
dealt with "houses unfit for human habitation," and were to the
following effect:—
"1. That in the opinion of this Conference it is desirable that some
common understanding should be arrived at between the County
Council and the Vestries and District Boards in the Metropolis, as
to the conditions or defects which would render a house, either
permanently or temporarily, 'so dangerous or injurious to health
as to be unfit for human habitation,' within the meaning of the
Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890."
"2. That with a view to arriving at such common understanding,
the Medical Officer of Health to the London County Council be
requested to convene a meeting of the Medical Officers of Health
of the Vestries and District Boards of the Metropolis, in order that
they may report generally on the subject to a subsequent meeting
of this Conference, and, if practicable, submit for consideration a