not only in the broader aspects of the work, but also in those matters of detail which lie at the root of success in every housing scheme. The Commission above referred to reported to Parliament in 1885, and several legislative enactments, including the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, were direct results of its labours. Although the legislative outcome of the Report was wholly meagre and inadequate, it is a tribute to the thoroughness and ability with which the Commissioners performed their task that nearly all the practical housing work of the past twelve years has been successful in proportion to the extent to which the spirit of the recommendations of the Commissioners has been embodied in the legislation under which action has been taken. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that most of the reforms advocated by those engaged in carrying out schemes for better housing bear a striking resemblance to those which were contained in the recommendations of the Royal Commission of 1885. To shew how nearly this is the case it is only necessary to compare the appended summary of the recommendations of the Commission with the various suggestions for legislative and administrative reform mentioned in the following pages in connection with municipal and other housing schemes. It will then be clearly seen that if full effect be given to these recommendations in a bold and generous spirit, an enormous step forward will be taken, and full scope will be afforded to those energies, municipal and otherwise, which have in the past done their best with cumbrous and shackled machinery, but which cannot do effective work on a comprehensive scale until greater facilities for and incentives to action are afforded by the public and by Parliament. The recommendations may be broadly arranged as follows. The paragraphs in small type give as nearly as practicable the actual words of the Report of the Commission. Recommendations of the Royal Commission of 1885. (1) It should be declared by statute to be the duty of the local authority to put in force such powers as they are by law entrusted with, so as to ensure that no premises shall be allowed to exist in an insanitary state. (2) More efficient supervision and inspection of the sanitary conditions of the people's dwellings. (a) Medical Officers of Health should reside in their districts, or within a mile of the boundaries, and should devote their whole time to their official duties. (b) The staff of Sanitary Inspectors should be increased, and in all cases the selection of persons acquainted with the principles of sanitation and of building construction should be required. (c) With the view of bringing specially under public attention the (3) Reform of local administration, especially as regards London government. As the remedies which legislation has provided for sanitary evils have been so imperfectly applied in the Metropolis, and as this failure has been due to the negligence in many cases of the existing local authorities, it does not appear that more satisfactory action on their part can be secured without reform in the local administration of London. (This recommendation has been given effect to by recent legislation, but in spirit it is still applicable to some municipalities). (4) General adoption of Byelaws. The Vestries and District Boards which have not already made and enforced byelaws should proceed to do so, although it is not likely that in all cases such action will be taken until the people shew a more active interest in the management of their local affairs. (5) Consolidation and amendment of the Public Health (London) Acts and the Housing Acts [These have been effected to a considerable extent by the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, Public Health (Amendment) Act, 1890, and the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, but the municipalities are asking for more simple procedure and far more effective powers. See Chapter XX]. (6) Local authorities should have greater facilities for the erection of workmen's dwellings. (Facilities have, of course, been increased by the Act of 1890, but they are in many respects inadequate. See Chapter XIII). (7) Rating of vacant sites on 4 per cent. of their selling value. (See page 264). (8) Compulsory powers to purchase land for new dwellings under the Housing Acts should be given to the local authority. (The powers given by the Act of 1890 are better than nothing, but they are far too cumbrous, costly, and inequitable to meet the needs of the case. See Chapter XX). (9) Reduction of compensation for land acquired under Housing Acts. In a purchase by a local authority of land in an unhealthy area for what are recognised by the legislature to be great public purposes, they ought to be entitled to purchase upon terms that will secure the fair market value and no more to the owners of the property, and in future legislation stronger words should be used. (10) Cheap Government loans for municipal housing schemes. The State should lend at the lowest rate possible without loss to the national exchequer; the term of repayment should be prolonged; the method of repayment by annuity should be re-adopted. (Mr. Torrens proposed that half the annual balance from the Savings Bank Fund should be lent for housing purposes at a rate equal to 2 per cent., plus a charge for administration and sinking fund). (11) The sites occupied by Metropolitan prisons should be appropriated for the erection of working-class dwellings. (It is gratifying to record the fact that His Majesty King Edward VII has quite recently-February, 1903-signalised the successful carrying out of this recommendation by a royal visit to the London County Council dwellings erected on the site of Millbank Prison). (12) The water supply should, as a general rule, be in the hands of the local authority. (13) Replacement of accommodation destroyed by railway companies, etc. Railway companies in the case of demolition of house property should be required 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. It should also be arranged that displacement and rebuilding should be as nearly as possible simultaneous. (14) Cheap transit to the "grass lands." It is important to favour in every way facilities of transit between the great centres of industry and the outlying districts. s(15) Government to initiate the provision of workmen's cheap trains. That the Board of Trade should themselves initiate communication with the London Trades Council and other representative bodies, and should secure to the working classes the full benefit to which they are entitled under the Act of 1883 as to houses as well as in other respects. (16) There should 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. (17) Facilities should be provided for enabling workmen to acquire their own dwellings on the rent-purchase system. (18) Cheaper land transfer. The Commissioners have received evidence which shewed that the reduction of the legal expenses in connection with the transfer of land would greatly strengthen societies which have been founded to enable workmen to become purchasers of dwellings. (19) Small holdings to be encouraged. Every encouragement should be given to the possession of land for the purposes of cultivation by the labourers in the agricultural districts. (20) Minor reforms, which have been embodied in subsequent legislation dealing with van dwellings, hop-pickers' lodgings, cellar dwellings, erection of mortuaries, and the application of trust funds and entailed land for housing purposes on the best terms. It has often been erroneously stated that the recommendations of the Commissioners have all been practically carried out in subsequent Acts of Parliament. Nominally this may be so in most cases, but what is wanted above everything else is that legislation should be so direct and simple in procedure as to effectively fulfil the recommendations above referred to, especially as regards cheaper suburban transit, cheaper sites, cheaper money, and the facilitation of the erection of cheap buildings by local authorities. It is hoped that a study of the following chapters will strengthen this conviction in the minds of the readers. Urgent Administrative Measures. The first duty of every local authority should be to ascertain exactly what is the deficiency of healthy accommodation in each district. In London this might well be done with the assistance and on the initiative of the central government if necessary. In any case it is claimed that the many local authorities that have ventured to take action under the Housing Acts should be speedily freed from the "shackles" which have prevented even the best and most active of them from doing their work in as effective a manner and to as great an extent as they and their constituents would desire. Speaking generally, they are doing their best under existing conditions, although there is one important and immediately necessary step of the highest value, which, up to now, none of them have as yet taken on anything like an adequate scale. They have failed to buy those large areas of agricultural land on their outskirts, which in the near future, with the development of cheap transit, will be quickly covered with dwellings, and which they are empowered to buy and hold under the Housing Act of 1900. (See pages 36 and 251-253). This is all the more imperative because now, more than ever, the trend of opinion is in the direction of relieving central congestion by facilitating and encouraging building outside populous districts. Lord Rosebery, who, perhaps more than any other English statesman, represents the middle or, as some prefer to call it, the national view of social politics, is very strong on this point. Speaking with approval of the efforts made to rehouse the working classes under Part II of the Housing of the Working Classes Act, he said, at the opening of the Shoreditch municipal dwellings : : "I think one of the most important works you or any other local authority can have undertaken is the business of the housing of the working classes. But you will have to take far larger measures than this if you wish to deal with the problem in any satisfactory manner. You ought to be able to house a great part of the working population of London more healthfully and more economically in the country near London. Non-party Reforms ripe for Parliamentary Action. A number of other suggestions will be found in the pages which follow, but while bearing in mind that there is no Morrison's Pill to cure the evils of bad housing, it may be well to single out here those reforms which are most widely in favour, and which have found such a large measure of support among all political parties as to be considered of a non-party character, and therefore likely to be accepted by any Parliament under any ministry, provided the force of public opinion insists upon real rather than nominal housing reform. These proposals are: (1) Simplification of procedure in sanitary and housing law. (3) Government loans-say of Savings Bank Funds—at a low (4) Longer periods for repayment of loans on the Annuity System. (5) Effective enforcement of rehousing and transit obligations on railway companies. (6) Rating of vacant sites on their capital value. BI Endorsed as they have been by a Royal Commission, by the vast 'majority of the municipalities, both Conservative and Liberal, and by prominent sanitarians of all shades of opinion, it is not unreasonable to expect that they will, by virtually common consent, soon be embodied in the law of the land. They will not prevent more drastic measures being taken later on, but they will tend to induce municipalities to take action in districts where much-needed reforms are now held back owing to fear of unnecessary expense, which must arise under present conditions. Apologies and Acknowledgments. In conclusion, it is hoped that every allowance will be made for any mistakes, either in matter or manner, which may require correction in the following pages. The work has had to be done in the spare moments of a busy life, spent rather in promoting actual schemes for housing reform than in activities of even a semi-literary character. If exception be taken to the mass of figures and dry legal or technical detail, it must be pleaded in extenuation that experience has demonstrated again and again the need for more intimate acquaintance with these material considerations. The process of compiling and compressing such parts of the matter herein contained has not been by any means a light task, as it has certainly not been exhilarating. The labour has, however, been lightened by the numerous and kindly acts of assistance from all quarters. It has been found necessary to appeal for information and assistance to so many, that it is impossible to thank even a tithe of them individually, but in addition to acknowledgments made in the respective chapters, the writer's hearty thanks are tendered to Mr. Robert Donald, Editor of the Municipal Journal; to Mr. George Cadbury, of Bournville; Mr. Lever, the founder of Sunlight Village; Mr. C. Corbett, M.P.; Mr. E. D. Till, of Eynsford; the various Co-operative Societies and Associations referred to; the Editor of Country Life; the Editor of The Builder; the Glasgow Workmen's Dwellings Company; the officers of the Richmond and other Corporations; with all others who have so kindly furnished information and given permission to reproduce the various illustrations. The writer also trusts that those from whose works he has taken the liberty to quote at various times, and whom he now thanks, will not think that he has abused the privilege. Finally, he desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to the authors of the books mentioned in the list which follows, for the great assistance their excellent works have been to him, not only in connection with these pages, but also, and to an even greater extent, in dealing with practical housing work from time to time. RICHMOND, SURREY, February, 1993. W. THOMPSON. |