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19
The Board directed a scheme to be carried out under
Part II.
The Local Government Board was petitioned for an order
sanctioning the scheme, and after the legal formalities had been
observed, and the necessary notices served, an inquiry was
held by a Local Government Board Inspector at the Board's
Offices in October, 1897.
Before the scheme was granted, the Inspector required information
as to the number of empty houses in the immediate
neighbourhood where the people displaced could be temporarily
housed. I had no difficulty in satisfying him on this point,
because since 1894 a large number of the houses had tumbled
down, or were in such a condition as to be uninhabitable,
and the scarcity of houses was not so acute as at the present
time. At this juncture 23 of the houses were still standing,
but ten were unoccupied and the remainder had 55 people in
them. The scheme was approved of in 1898, and steps were
at once taken to compensate the owners and to have the houses
taken down.
In February, of this year, a resolution was passed at the
Board meeting that I should report to the Sanitary Committee
the desirability of having a scheme prepared under Part I. of
the Act for that part of the district known as Limehouse Fields.
On making enquiries, I found that the number of cases of Infectious
Diseases, the death rate from Zymotic Diseases,
Tuberculosis and other causes was below that for the whole of
the district. Furthermore, the arguments used by the members
in favour of the scheme were, that the gardens and open spaces
at the rear of the houses were too large and could be better
utilized by having them built upon. Under these circumstances
it was impossible for me to make an official representation
under the 4th Section of the Act, though most anxious to have
suitable dwellings for the working classes, and well knowing the
great and increased demand there is for houses in the neighbourhood.
What is the cause of the scarcity of houses and of
overcrowding in our district, and what is going to be the