Page:Dwellings of working-people in London.djvu/40

 improvement, inasmuch as the power of closing and removal can only in practice be put in force against tenements of the most ruinous and obviously unhealthy character, while the space occupied by such houses without the addition of adjacent areas (it may be of a different description and unobtainable by negotiation) may be, and often is, too limited in extent to be of any value as a site for dwellings constructed on sound sanitary principles.

That the other powers entrusted to the local authorities, and mainly exercised through the medical officers of health, such as the powers of enforcing cleanliness, repairs, ventilation, water supply, and the like, though of very great value in preventing buildings from falling into a bad state, are merely palliative in their application to houses the original construction of which was defective, and cannot be expected to bring about any such radical improvement in them as is required.

That private enterprise, whether in the form of building speculation or of philanthropic or semi-philanthropic effort, is unable to deal effectually with the evil, owing to the complicated and subdivided tenures under which most of the property in question is held.

That the extensive demolition of small houses which has been carried out of late years, under various railway and improvement Acts, has, no doubt, been in some respects beneficial, by removing numerous damp, ill-ventilated, and dilapidated courts, but that, as the promoters had other objects than the welfare of the poor in view, these schemes have generally been so framed and carried out as to cause much suffering to the persons displaced, and in some cases greatly to increase the overcrowding and unhealthiness of neighbouring districts.

That, in the opinion of your Memorialists, the evil can only be adequately dealt with by making it the duty of some public body possessing a wider sphere of action, and in a more independent position, than the local boards and vestries, and invested, when necessary, with powers of compulsory purchase, to initiate comprehensive improvements in the interest of the poorer classes, as has been done with good effect in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and other cities, and, in a somewhat different form, in Liverpool.

That the Corporation of the City and the Metropolitan Board of Works are at present, as it appears to your Memorialists, the only bodies on whom such a duty can be imposed, and that your Memorialists believe that if the duty of initiating and regulating improvements were imposed on those bodies, voluntary enterprise would be found ready to undertake the work of reconstruction; though to provide against contingencies it would be expedient that these bodies should themselves have the power of rebuilding in certain exceptional cases and under proper limitations.

That such a measure need not impose any heavy burden on the rates, as the ultimate expenditure from that source would only be the difference between the price paid for the property to be taken, and the price received for it when sold, so that a very moderate rate spread over London would make it possible to bring about very material improvements.