View report page

40
HOUSING.
Slum Clearance.
Of the many and varied duties which a Local Authority is
called upon to perform for the protection and maintenance of the
health of the community, the proper housing of the working classes
is one of the most important.
The general provisions of the Housing (1930) Act are now too
well known to need reiteration. Its object is to end the slum and
prevent future slums. The measures to be applied are "curative "
and "preventive."
There is no legal definition of what constitutes a slum, but a
good definition of a slum would be "an area which contains a
whole set of circumstances comprising conditions which are
injurious to health, or a cluster of houses, or a house in which it is
not possible to live a healthy life under proper sanitary conditions."
Two of the most important factors in the creation of slums are
"bad housing" and "overcrowding."
The Act provides for three lines of attack:—
(1) by Clearance Areas,
(2) Improvement Areas and
(3) Individual defective houses.
Experience has shown that concentration on "Slum
Clearance" is the most sound method, it is less costly, gives more
satisfaction and provides for better housing accommodation for the
largest number of people.
The first provisional five years' programme was submitted to
the Ministry of Health in December, 1930 and consisted of a
Schedule of 104 dwellings, occupied by 415 persons of the working
classes, for action under "Slum Clearance," or demolition if
individual unfit houses.