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31
clearance. When the war ended in 1945 damage to and deterioration of London
housing was so extensive that it was obvious some years must elapse before
slum clearance could be resumed; the acute housing shortage made it imperative
that any dwelling capable of providing reasonable shelter be retained in use.
However, such was the progress made in repairing war damaged houses and
the erection of new dwellings that by 1949 it seemed possible that some plan
for resuming slum clearance could be prepared, and in March of that year a Conference
of officers of the Ministry of Health, the London County Council and
the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee was held. At that conference
stress was laid on the necessity for resuming slum clearance as part of
a co-ordinated plan for the provision of housing accommodation in London in
order that housing operations in the County should not be curtailed because of
lack of suitable sites. The Conference decided among other things to obtain
a return of clearance areas represented by the various Councils prior to the
war and which had not been dealt with. Following these discussions, and
after consultation with the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee,
the London County Council requested information from the Metropolitan Borough
Councils regarding their immediate post-war clearance programmes.
A survey was carried out in Hackney and after making allowances for the
properties included in Compulsory Purchase Orders, a provisional programme
including some 966 dwelling houses was submitted to the London County Council.
Further conferences were held which culminated in the framing of a fiveyear
programme of slum clearance on an all county basis involving 10,131
houses, of which 6,686 were to be cleared by the London County Council and
3,445 by the Borough Councils in the five years 1951-1955. The marked disparity
in the allocation to the various Councils caused some surprise as it
appeared that the Boroughs had not been dealt with on a basis of equality;
the explanation was that the guiding principle had been to deal first with the
worst areas and, therefore, some disparity was inevitable.
With regard to Hackney the proposals envisaged 93 houses only as ripe for
clearance during this five-year period; of this number 24 houses contained in
five small areas to be dealt with by the Borough Council and the remaining 69,
in three areas, by the London County Council. Inspection of the proposed
areas revealed that 5 of the 24 houses allocated to the Borough Council were
included in a compulsory purchase area, while other properties could for
various reasons be left over for the time being.
At a later meeting between representatives of the London County Council
and the Borough Council it was agreed that the five houses included in the
compulsory purchase area could be deleted from the programme and a further 20
houses to be selected could be dealt with, making a total of 39 houses to be
cleared in the given neriod 1951-1955.

The position at the end of the year in regard to the agreed proposals was
that 16 houses had been represented, leaving two areas containing 7 houses to
be dealt with and a further 16 houses to be selected as suitable for slum
clearance.
A summary of action taken under the Housing Act, 1936 is set out on page
11 of the Appendix.