A SLUM CENSUS

Evening Star, Issue 19763, 13 January 1928, Page 1

A SLUM CENSUS

SOME DISQUIETING FIGURES ‘The Times’ has recently conducted an‘investigation into the slum problem in all parts of the country. In a leader it sums up the situation as follows: — “ There is no gainsaying the fact that present conditions are intolerably bad. In Bristol, in marked contrast to the position in Cardiff—where it is claimed that there is to-day no definitely unhealthy area and not a single house which could be made subject to a closing or demolition order—2s,ooo of the population are -still compelled, in spite of much good work by the City Council, the Bristol Council of Christian Churches, and private effort, to make their homes in houses scheduled for demolition as unfit for occupation. “In Birmingham the number in search of decent homes is 27,000; Nottingham has still 5,000 back-to-back houses, Leeds 72,000, and Bradford 03,000. The congestion in industrial Tyneside is particularly serious, and the overcrowding in thirty-four urban areas of Northumberland and Durham is, with two exceptions, worse than anywhere else in England and Wales. “In Scotland, which has been -slow to initiate schemes of rehousing, sbere are at last definite signs of improvement. _ But the position in ite big towns is still very backward, and. generally speaking, there is an immense amount of work to be done everywhere. The main difficulties to be faced are the expense of acquiring condemned slum areas, even at their site value; the temporary housing of the displaced tenants during the period necessary for rebuilding or reconditioning; and the eventual provision of permanent residences for as many of them as possible not too far from their regular or casual work. “ Even when these are disposed of there remain the further problems + hat many of them dislike turning out of their old quarters and into the new; that in some cases the tendency to convert whatever rooms they inliabit into slums is deeply ingrained; and that comparatively few can afford to pay the economic rents.

“the task of overcoming these various forms of psychological and financial friction must obviously be extremely slow and costly. . . . SJut it is with the local authorities that the responsibility of ridding the towns of unhealthy ore as reallv lios v