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of the standard of fitness, of existing housing accommodation.
The Act, moreover, was intended to simplify and amplify the
powers under the previous Housing Acts, especially in regard
to procedure under the principal Act, i.e., the Housing of the
Working Classes Act, 1890. Special powers are contained in
the Act for dealing with insanitary dwelling-houses and slum
areas, and, not least important, the financial provisions were
designed to relieve local authorities of much of the heavy cost
involved in carrying out their housing schemes.
In November, the Council, in accordance with the suggestion
of the Ministry of Health, appointed a special Housing
Committee, to which it delegated its powers (except in financial
matters).
In considering the provision of new houses in Battersea
it was evident that, although the need for houses was acute,
the land available for building was extremely limited. Not
much, therefore, was to be hoped for immediately in regard
to this aspect of the question, but, nevertheless, steps were
taken to ascertain what building land was available in the
Borough. The Health Committee, and subsequently the
newly-formed Housing Committee, visited all possible sites.
These were subsequently surveyed and submitted for consideration.
For various reasons, however, mainly economic,
only a few of these sites were considered practicable.
It was felt, therefore, that the main activities of the
Council in regard to housing in Battersea would have to be
focussed on the question of dealing with insanitary houses and
slum areas.
It is, in my opinion, undesirable, except for emergency
purposes, to build further new houses in Battersea. The
Borough is already too densely populated as it is. What is
badly needed is the demolition of the old, worn-out, badly
planned, badly built, dirty, damp, and dilapidated houses or
groups of houses, which are incapable of being made reasonably
fit for habitation. There is, unfortunately, a considerable
amount of this class of property in the Borough, especially in
the lower wards; and its gradual elimination, followed by
improvement or reconstruction schemes, is very desirable from
the public health standpoint.
Under existing conditions it is, of course, impossible to
carry out such schemes immediately, owing to lack of
accommodation for the dispossessed population. The acquisition
of such insanitary areas, as a preliminary measure, by the
Local Authority, and the temporary improvement of the defective
houses, until the acuteness of the house shortage has
subsided, would be the most useful procedure to adopt
in the present emergency.