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156
The meaning of this is that, should the Medical Officer of
Health of a District, or of the Council, report to the sanitary
authority any house as in so injurious a state as to be unfit
for human habitation, and if no step be taken, within a month
of written notice, to obtain a closing order, the Council may
act as if it were the sanitary authority, costs incurred being
made a debt from the said authority.
The above and some other recommendations were
the outcome of careful consideration by the Committee
"both as to the policy to be pursued by the Council, and as
to the action of the Committee." The entire report of the
Committee (dated 1st December, 1890), regarded in this
light, is well deserving of attention. It will be found in the
Minutes of Proceedings of the Council, 1891, page 5.
It does not appear that many Improvement Schemes
under Part II. have been initiated hitherto, either by the
Sanitary Authorities or by the Council itself, which will contribute
to the cost of schemes when they deal satisfactorily
with an insanitary area, and when the need of such contribution
is shown to the satisfaction of the Council.
THE COUNTY COUNCIL ON THE HOUSING
OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.
In my Annual Report for 1888-89, I observed that it
would be well could the County Council enter into competition
with the owners of insanitary houses, by providing decent
houses for the working classes at a moderate but remunerative
rent, under what was then known as Lord Shaftesbury's Act.
The Council, shortly afterwards, resolved to make the
attempt on the "Hughes Held Area," at Deptford, some
seven acres in extent, which had been acquired by the Metropolitan
Board of Works, under Cross's Acts, but, for reasons
which need not be repeated here, were unable to give effect to
their resolution. The Council have been more successful in