GREAT HOUSING SCHEME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22524, 15 September 1936, Page 5

GREAT HOUSING SCHEME

EAST END OF LONDON AMBITIOUS WORK SUGGESTED [from a special correspondent]- I LONDON,, August 128 A gigantic scheme to rebuild the entire East End of London is now being brought before the London County Council. The east ends of London, Durham and Northumberland were condemned last week by the national overcrowding survey report as the worst slum areas in the country. The man of vision now prompting the London County Council to' undertake this great scheme is Mr. Lewis Silkin, M.P., housing chief of London. "The East End must be rebuilt into one great modern housing and business estate planned in a series of co-related schemes," Mr. Silkin said. "It is a problem which can be faced only in this manner: Clearance schemes already started in Shoa-editch, Bethnal Green and Stepney have all been planned as part of .one enormous newcity of the East which I have in mind. "If this reshaping of the East End is carried through at the speed I desire, it could be completed in 15 years. It would cost hundreds of millions, but the ultimate burden on Londoners would not be heavy." Nearly 3,000,000 people will have to leave their homes for the project to be carried out. Shoreditch and Stepney are the most overcrowded boroughs in London. Mr. Silkin estimates the immediate cost of necessary housing in London at £40,000,000.