L. C. C. Slum Clearance Policies, 1889-1907

The London County Council had a crucial role in the development of housing policies in late Victorian England. This paper is concerned with the period of Progressive rule between 1889 and 1907. This is divided into two phases, each of which began with major slum clearance schemes, and ended with clearance out of favour. In the first period the Council tried to act indirectly by pressuring landlords and Vestries into remedial action, supported by numerous small-scale clearances. Instead, most of its expenditure went on a few large schemes which re-emphasized the cost of clearance and the scale of compensation payments. As support for clearance declined, the whole programme of housing action lost momentum. In 1898 the second phase began with direct action to clear slums and build more houses in the inner city, but this soon gave way to a suburban policy in which clearance had no part. These policy fluctuations are examined in detail, and the status of slum clearance as a social reform is reviewed. The formation of the London County Council in 1889 opened up a much improved prospect for social reform through municipal action. Previously, the Metropolitan Board of Works had formed the highest tier of London local government, but this was an indirectly elected body with representatives from the various Vestries and District Boards. As such, it obviously lacked political robustness, and was inhibited in its relationships with the state and the local authorities. The newly elected body, however, had much greater potential and obvious political significance. Moreover, the first elections saw the return of a large Progressive majority, a body made up of diverse interests, but which included a substantial number of members committed to reform. This majority was to remain intact until 1907, although it was reduced to a very thin margin between 1895 and 1898. Despite this stability, the achievements of the Council in the field of slum clearance were to be distinctly limited. Its action was mostly confined to two surges of activity, between 1889 and 1892 and between 1898 and 1900. The final clearance figures, in terms of expenditure and populations involved, were no more impressive than those achieved by the Board of Works between 1875 and 1888. Further, the abandonment of slum clearance in 1900 in favour of suburban building brought about a switch of attention away from the problems of urban decay

Business · Environmental health · Slum · Housing Market and Economics · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Medicine · Urban and Rural Development Challenges

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