REMOVAL OF SLUMS

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 24 August 1933, Page 5

REMOVAL OF SLUMS

MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN. ALTERNATIVE ACCOMMODATION'. (British Gfrictal Wir*!*\se.> RUGBY, Aug. 22. Local authorities throughout Britain are concentrating on schemes for the removal of slums and the provision of alternative accommodation. For the most part the slums are situated in the older boroughs and are, in the words of Sir E. Hilton Young, relics of the time when general law and bylaws did not prevent the establishment of housing conditions which are intolerable according to present standards.

In a recent circular the Minister of Health stated that conditions at the present- time were auspicious for al concerted and determined attack on the slums, arid called upon the local authorities to submit definite schemes for the removal within five years of all unsuitable dwellings. Since the war local authorities have in most cases considered housing in relation to new construction to meet the demands of the population, and within the last 14 years 2.000,000 new houses have been built. Only a small, proportion' of ’these have been definitely* al-. lotted to slum dwellers, and although manv progressive boroughs l have done excellent, work in tackling local slum areas the action of the Health Minister in dealing with ' the subject on a national basis lias stimulated interest’ generally and enlisted public support for drastic slum clearance schemes.