Manual on unfit houses and unhealthy areas / Ministry of Health.

Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Manual on unfit houses and unhealthy areas / Ministry of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/122 (page 18)
    Arrangements with owners. 9. In some instances in the past, it has been possible to secure the opening up of congested areas or groups of buildings by arrangement with owners of property. An owner may agree with a Local Authority for the demolition of part of his property. He may benefit from the improvement of his other property in consequence of the demolition. The Local Authority also can bring pressure to bear on him, and rightly so, by the action which they can take as regards his property if the desired improvements are not undertaken. One advantage of proceeding by agreement is that improvements may be effected with despatch. It is true that the area affected by any one arrangement of this kind may, generally, be small; but a number of cases may be undertaken at the same time or immediately after one another, and the total improvements effected may be large. CHAPTER VIII.—USE OF CLEARED SITES.* 1. There are four principal uses to which a cleared site may be put, for — rehousing, for factory purposes, for other business premises, or aS an open space. In many cases there will be advantages in using a site for two’or more purposes. The considerations which should determine the use of a cleared site are dealt with in the following sections. It is necessary to bear in mind that the price to be paid for the site will be reduced if it is used for re-housing or as an open space. It is necessary also to have regard not simply to the requirements oi the area itself but of the district in general. While due regard should be paid to the needs and wishes of displaced persons and to what they may reasonably expect in the way of new housing accommodation, the first consideration must be the needs of the town as a whole. For this reason, it is most important, as already indicated, to have in mind, at least in broad outline, a plan of the future development of the town. In some cases there may be local interests which favour the use of the land for housing or some other particular purpose, but these local interests, if they conflict with what is for the general good of the district, should not be allowed to prevail. The property to be demolished will probably be old. In the many years which will have passed since it was built the circumstances of the town will probably have changed considerably. Sites which then were good for houses may now have become valuable for business purposes. Use of Site for Business or Factory Premises. 2. If there is a large demand for the land and the prices which persons are prepared to pay for it are high, much beyond its housing price, there is a presumption that its value for industrial or commercial purposes is greater than its value for housing, and it will be necessary to consider whether the land should be used for one of these purposes. Any presumption in favour of using the land otherwise than for housing needs to be qualified by the following considerations. In the first place, due regard must be paid to the needs of the displaced persons; this matter is dealt with in the next section. Secondly, whereas there may be an immediate demand for the use of the cleared site for business or factory purposes, the general tendency and ultimate intention may be that the particular area of which the site forms part shall not in the future be used for these purposes, the policy being to develop other areas where railway, water or other facilities may be greater for this purpose. A third consideration, which is likely to apply only in very large towns, is that, where already there is serious traffic congestion between the central districts and the outlying parts, to add to the industrial or commercial premises in the centre at the expense of housing may render the passenger traffic more congested still unless adequate measures are taken for improving the facilities for transit. * This Chapter deals with matters which are being considered by a Committee (see page 5). It must, therefore, to some extent be regarded as provisional.