Slum warning for Britain

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 4

Slum warning for Britain

NZPA-Reuter London Britain is in danger of becoming a slum society, according to a senior British judge, who has warned that homelessness and poor housing provides a breeding ground for crime, marital breakdown, child abuse, and neglect Speaking at the launch of the British campaign for the United Nations* International Year of Shelter, Lord Scarman said homelessness and poor housing were also “an affront to human dignity and the denial of a basic human right”

Lord Scarman, who headed a Government inquiry into rioting that broke out in 20 British cities in 1981, was speaking as president of the British campaign.

He warned: “Tomorrow in Britain our own chil-

dren and grandchildren . will find themselves condemned to live in a slum unless something is done I to meet now a huge and accumulating bill for repairs to our housing.” Backed by Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy and Rod Hackney, president- g elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects who also acts as archltectural adviser to Prince Charles, Lord Scarman - called for an expansion of capital investment in housHig. Three short-term priori- . ties in Britain were to end J reliance on bed-and- | breakfast accommodation for homeless families, to help house the elderly — /'■ half a million of whom lived in dwellings unfit for H human habitation — and to help the young home- g less.