Report of the Committee on Housing in Greater London / Chairman: Sir Milner Holland. Presented to Parliament by the Minister of Housing and Local Government by command of Her Majesty, March, 1965.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee on Housing in Greater London.
Date:
[1965]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee on Housing in Greater London / Chairman: Sir Milner Holland. Presented to Parliament by the Minister of Housing and Local Government by command of Her Majesty, March, 1965. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/476 (page 1)
    INTRODUCTION To the Rt. Hon. Richard Crossman, O.B.E., M.P., é. Minister of Housing and Local Government. ir, We were appointed on 24th August, 1963, by the Rt. Hon. Sir Keith Joseph, Bt., M.P., then Minister of Housing and Local Government, with the following terms of reference: To survey the housing situation in Greater London (as defined in the London Government Act 1963) with particular reference to the use, maintenance and management of rented accommodation, whether privately or publicly owned, and to the relations between the occupiers of rented accommodation and private landlords. The area of Greater London, as above defined, can be seen conveniently on the map shown in Fig. 1. The appointment of an independent committee on these or similar lines was foreshadowed in the White Paper, London—Employment: Housing: Land (Cmnd. 1952) presented to Parliament in February 1963, paragraphs 48 and 49 of which read as follows: 48. Survey of Existing Housing. What can be done to help those families living in bad and over-crowded conditions while new houses and improve- ments are being pushed ahead? In the short term, this is a problem of letting policies and priorities—making the best possible use of existing housing in conditions of scarcity. Three-fifths of the houses in London are either privately rented or owned by local authorities, but very little information is available on the way in which this accommodation is being used and managed. Complaints are made of unfair pressure on the tenants of some private houses; but to what extent this is happening is not known. It may be that more could be done to relieve some of the hardship experienced by a section of Londoners by a better use of existing housing. Some of the local authority houses are occupied by tenants who could, perhaps, fend for themselves and should be encouraged to do so, and thus make way for families who have to look to the local authorities. 49, The Government propose accordingly to arrange for a survey of housing to be carried out in London; and they think that it would be most satisfactory if this survey were to be conducted by an independent committee, asked to report on the state of housing in London and in particular whether, given the scarcity, rented housing is being used and managed to the best advantage. The Government will ask the housing authorities to co-operate in this work and will consult them on the membership of the committee and on its terms of reference. The survey should cover publicly provided housing as well as private; for the object must be to make the best use, especially in the interests of those least able to provide for themselves, of all the housing that is or can be made available. The committee will be asked to report as quickly as possible. I]