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66
HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
The Committee formed to take action under The Housing of the
Working Classes Act, Part 3, has met on several occasions during the
year with no tangible results.
The district is mainly inhabited by the working classes, and the
housing accommodation already provided by private enterprise is ample
and good.
All the buildings have to comply with the bye-laws (Model Bye-laws
of the Local Government Board), and if these are strictly enforced, as
they are supposed to be, there is little room for improvement.
It is possible that houses, with fewer and larger rooms than the
ordinary six-roomed cottage, might be erected in the outskirts and serve
the needs of many.
The Electric Trams would then make it possible, for those who now
crowd round the stations, to live in a purer and better atmosphere.
My personal experience, however, has been that in Walthamstow the
housing accommodation is not at fault; where fault is greatest is with
the housed.
Under Section 32, the cottages in Church Lane have been visited and
carefully inspected by Mr. West and myself. No action under the Act
resulted further than the rectifying of the structural and other defects
found.