SLUM CLEARANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 28 November 1933, Page 8

SLUM CLEARANCE

MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN

REHOUSING -A MILLION SOULS.

LONDON, November 25;

At the Conservative Party Conference at Birmingham, Sir Hilton Young, Minister of Health, described the, prowess of the slum clearance campaign. The goal, which has been aimed «t is the clearance in five years of 200,bC0 houses and the rehousing, of a million pebple.

The . first step in the Government; campaign has been the request to local authorities to furnish their programmes for dealing with the slums-in five veal*, both by clearance and by reconditioning. “The result,” s aid the Minister, “j,s a good one, as a whole; it i. s a result worthy 'of our local authorities, laud we see in it promise of the successful achievement of the campaign.

“At present I have received returnscovering three-fifths, that is, more than i half the total population, 'of the coum) try. .Estimating the total programme from those received, it should be j for the clearance of about 210,000 houses and rehousing about 1,050,000. paople ip five yen’s. That is a j very big effort. During the last | 10 years only 20,000 slum houses have been cleared. . This effort multi-, plies that by 20. “How big is- the effort can best be | understood if you consider its cost. It, represents a total capital outlav in the j five years of £95,000.000—£19.000,000 a year on an average. To meet that, for. 40 years, the taxpayer must bear an accumulating charge of £550,000 a j year, rising, that is. to £2,750.000 a ■ ye-r fat the end of the five years,; and. correspondingly the ratepayer must bear a charge of £165,000. ris : ng to £825,000 a year. The burden is undoubtedly great-. It is not greater than is required by the greatness of the evil with which we are dealing. It must not minimise the effort that ’s needed. “Let me turn to another favourable aspect of the effort. It is estimated that the . clearance of 210,000 houses in five years would give direct employment to some 50,000 men in the building trade, : and indirect employment to another 30,000 in related trades, making 80,000 in all. So against the big bill for slum clearance we may set down a very substantial economy in expenditure on unemployment. “The Government is determined to see the matter through, and now that it is assured that the bulk of the local authorities will take the matter up with the energy and vision which we expected of them, there is less excuse for a laggard or defaulter. But. while we shall deal with the small minority of laggards, let us praise, too, the majority of the local authorities, who are setting about the business in the right spirit, making their plans with vision and knowledge, and getting to work upon them with promptitude and energy/'