Page images
PDF
EPUB

insufficient. Without waiting for presentation of their report the Commissioners by special resolution recommended considerable amendments to the House of Lords Standing Orders, and similar amendments in the Standing Orders of the House of Commons, which were adopted by both Houses of Parliament, and are printed in the Appendix to this Report.

The Commissioners would recommend that the railway companies, in the case of demolitions of house property, be required both to provide new accommodation for the number of persons previously residing in the houses demolished and be precluded from using the dwellings so substituted for any other purpose without the consent of the local authority.

Displacement to be Gradual.

Your Majesty's Commissioners would recommend that it should be made compulsory for displacement and rebuilding to be as nearly as possible simultaneous. They are not of opinion that the details could be laid down in an Act of Parliament. For instance, in the case of a scheme of metropolitan improvement or a scheme under Sir Richard Cross's Act, it would not be practicable to enact that the whole area should under no circumstances be cleared at once, but that a portion only should be cleared, as it might seriously prejudice the success of a scheme if the new roads or streets required were not allowed to be carried out in the first instance. Your Majesty's Commissioners are of opinion that the policy and principle of their recommendation should be laid down by statute, and that the details must be left to the local authority.

Model Dwellings.

Your Majesty's Commissioners have recommended that power should be given to limited owners and corporations to apply trust funds on terms other than the best that can be obtained when the object is the provision of dwellings for the working classes. This principle, it appears from evidence, if carried out would greatly assist the extension of model dwellings for the accommodation of a class which is now rarely reached by them. It has been seen how the rents of the tenements in model dwellings are an obstacle to their occupation by the poorest class; and an opinion expressed by a witness that the building companies might reach the poorest classes if they could be satisfied with a less dividend is not one on which Your Majesty's Commissioners would base a suggestion. The force of their recommendation, referred to above, would, however, be felt in cases where the difficulty of providing the dwellings is due to the cost of the land, or to the ground rent. The agent for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' property said that the first difficulty in providing blocks of buildings for artisans' dwellings was the procuring of sites, but if sites could be provided the buildings could not, in some cases, be put up by private enterprise on

account of the amount of the ground rents. The agent to the Northampton and Westminster properties referred to the Gatliff Buildings on the latter estate. The principle adopted in the case of these dwellings was that the ground landlord let the land at the lowest possible ground rent, and lent the money for the building at 3 per cent. on the security of the lease on the condition that the buildings should be for the use of the very poor. Your Majesty's Commissioners do not assert that the rents quoted for the Gatliff Buildings are at a rate which would put the dwellings within the reach of the most necessitous class. They have only cited the instance in support of their previous recommendation that powers should be universally given to limited owners and corporations to apply trust funds in such cases on other than the best terms. The recommendations in favour of a lower rate of interest on public loans, and in favour of housing by railway companies; that in favour of the simplification and extension of Lord Shaftesbury's Act, the proposal for the removal of prisons, the recommendations also with regard to legal expenses, to compensation, and others, would all tend to increase the number of such buildings and thus to lower rents.

FURTHER GENERAL SANITARY RECOMMENDATIONS

Abatement of Nuisances.

Under the Act in force in the metropolis there is no provision for the justices imposing a penalty when they make an order for the abatement of a nuisance, or an order prohibiting the recurrence of a nuisance. Under the Public Health Act, 1875, which is in force outside the metropolis, there is such a provision; the court may impose a penalty not exceeding £5 on the person upon whom the order is made. The Commissioners recommend that this provision should be made applicable to the metropolis, and that the maximum penalty might also with advantage be increased.

Responsibility of Owners.

In the opinion of the Commissioners there should also be a simple power by civil procedure for the recovery of damages against owners or holders of property by those who have suffered injury or loss by their neglect or default in sanitary matters.

Water Supply.

Evidence has been given showing that the inadequacy of the water supply in the poorer quarters of the metropolis and the great towns is the cause of much unhealthiness and misery in the dwellings of the working classes, and the Commissioners would recommend that the water supply should, as a general rule, be in the hands of the local authority.

Closet Accommodation.

The law as to the power of water companies to cut off the water supply has already been cited in this Report, and the Commissioners, recognizing the grave consequences which may result from the misuse of this power, recommend that the companies should be deprived of the summary power which they now possess.

Much evidence was given before the Commissioners, some of which has been quoted in this Report, of the insufficient provision of waterclosets and privies both in town and country, and considering the evil effects, both moral and sanitary, of this deficiency the Commissioners would recommend that, even in the case of old houses, the duty should be thrown on owners of erecting them where they do not exist. It might, however, be necessary to provide for the relaxation of the law in certain cases.

Van Towns.

The Commissioners recommend that the local authorities should be given jurisdiction over them by means of the extension of their powers by statute to all habitations, and that the powers given in section 23 of the Public Health Act should be extended to any hut or tent, and to any cart used for sleeping which remains for more than two nights within 200 yards of the same spot. It is not intended by these suggestions to interfere with encampments of Your Majesty's Forces under proper military supervision, and it may be gathered from the foregoing that it is not proposed to interfere with the habits of the nomadic gipsy population. The recommendations of the Commissioners are made for the benefit of the neighbourhoods in which van towns are located, as well as in the interest of the settlers themselves.

Hop-pickers.

The Commissioners would therefore recommend that section 314 of the Public Health Act shall be so amended that provisions equivalent to those contained in the model by-laws of the Local Government Board shall be applied in all districts of sanitary authorities largely visited by persons engaged in picking hops, and that provision shall also be made for the efficient inspection of the lodgings of hop-pickers and fruit-pickers by the sanitary authorities.

APPENDIX C

MISS OCTAVIA HILL

IN 1864 Miss Octavia Hill began managing property for owners. At the suggestion of John Ruskin opportunity was taken of the rent collection to influence the habits and characters of the tenant dwellers. The following notes on Miss Octavia Hill's system of rent collecting are taken from her pamphlet Homes of the London Poor (1875)——— The chief features of Miss Hill's system are

(1) That the rents are collected by ladies; and Miss Hill gives the following reasons why ladies are so successful in their work

(a) They are accustomed to household needs and arrangements. (b) They are generally careful of details.

(c) The wife is the person who pays the rent, and is at home to see the collectors.

(d) Ladies are more familiar with all that makes home comfortable for family life and children.

(2) One of the principal things is "sympathy with the tenants" and a close contact with their daily lives.

(3) On acquiring the control or possession of a new block of property, the houses are overhauled and repaired, and the position and character of the tenants are closely observed.

(4) Tenants who will not pay rent, or who lead clearly immoral lives, are ejected. These rooms or houses which they vacate are immediately cleansed, distempered and painted. Those of the remaining tenants who show signs of or a desire for improvement, and appreciation of attention, are allowed to remove into the renovated house or houses, and thus each remaining room is attended to.

(5) No sub-letting is permitted, and no incoming tenants are allowed to take a decidedly insufficient quantity of rooms. The elder girls of the tenants, or older women, are employed in cleaning any passages, etc., for which they are paid. It is within the authority also of the landlord to insist on the cleanliness of the outhouses, staircases, etc., and also to look after the cleanliness of the rooms themselves..

(6) Miss Hill has hitherto found such properties pay a very safe 4 per cent. on capital invested, and at the same time a fund for the repayment of the capital is accumulating. In some cases 5 per cent. is earned on the capital invested.

(7) This interest is realized after spending a liberal allowance for repairs. Each property is allowed a certain amount per year for repairs, and if this amount is not all spent, the surplus is used for providing such appliances as the tenants themselves desire. It is therefore to the interest of the tenants to keep the expenditure for

« EelmineJätka »