HOUSING PROJECT

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3275, 6 March 1937, Page 6

HOUSING PROJECT

FOR CONGESTED AREAS \ _______ LONDON'S 70,000 NEW HOMES. Sir Sydney Robinson, an alderman of the London County Council, who arrived in Sydney recently, said that under the cbuhcil's building scheme, 70,000 hew workers' dwellings had been built in formerly congested areas in London.

Sir Sydney is managing director of ! a London firm of building contractors which bears his name. He explained that the housing project, besides necessitating extensive demolitions of insanitary houses, had meant a suburban encroachment into rural areas near London, and had resulted in the emergence of what were practically small towns.

Two such were Dagenham and Chigwell. In both these places the building activity, he said, had fostered the establishment of distinct county councils and social services, including schools, child welfare centres and medical clinics.

"By the way," he said, "we have given up referring to the 'slums.' They are known as 'congested areas.' To avoid the.barrack atmosphere, the houses have not been built to any uniform pattern, and space has been allotted on a liberal scale, no more than eight homes being built to the acre They are so situated as to promote the placing around London of a 'green belt' of trees, parks, and lawns. The formation of the new towns has encouraged business enterprises to extend their plant in that direction, notably motor car interests."