RECONDITIONING
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SI11,—It is difficult to understand the terms of reference to the recently appointed Departmental Committee which are considered to fall under the head of reconditioning, inas- much as the named purpose of securing the maintenance of a proper standard of fitness for human habitation in working-class houses not situated in clearance areas or suitable for demolition seems already to be covered by the procedure for improvement areas, the aim of which in the words of the Act is to secure for the area concerned "the improvement of housing conditions and the subsequent maintenance of a proper standard of housing conditions therein." There are, however, according to the debate as reported some indications that at the back of the ministerial mind was the case of the structurally undivided London tenement house. And it has to be reckoned with that more than half of the working-class population in London are said to be living in such houses and further that, quite apart from the erection of new housing estates in the outskirts of London, the great majority of the lower wage-earners whose work lies in Central London will have to continue to live in these tenement houses.
Space does not admit of describing the drawbacks of the London tenement house for the benefit of the uninitiated, but it is sufficient to say that the laws, going back over forty years, which regulate the occupation of tenement houses, or "houses let in lodgings" as they are called officially,
are a sufficient admission that the accommodation provided by such houses is inherently unsatisfactory. Reconditioning is an elastic word, and the thorough repairs made necessary by reason of the accumulated neglect of bad landlordism in the past is often supplemented by improvements of various sorts and degrees. But, short of remodelling into separate flats of modern design, the tenement house cannot at its best provide the privacy and the comfort of the home. And perhaps the most that will be financially possible will be to level up the worst of these houses to the standard of those of a somewhat better class which are already properly main- tained and are provided with a certain minimum of sanitary needs. How even this is to be effected, unless there is to be acquisition as well as enlightened management, is a problem which the Departmental Committee will have to tackle.—
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