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96
The lands may be taken either by agreement or compulsorily,
but under the Scheme the London County Council is not to demolish
any occupied house in the areas until accommodation for a number
of persons equivalent to the number of working-class occupants
of such house is available in new dwellings to be erected by the
County Council in pursuance of the Scheme, unless that Authority
is satisfied that suitable alternative accommodation for such
occupants is available elsewhere.
It is estimated that there are approximately 1,800 people in the
China Walk site, and of these it is proposed to re-house 1,360 in the
new houses to be erected on the site. It is also proposed by the
County Council to house on the Kennings Estate, White Hart
Street, Kennington, a certain number of the people for whom
it will not be possible to provide accommodation on the China Walk
site.
It is further provided under the Scheme that all lands upon
which dwellings for the rehousing of persons displaced are erected
on the site shall, for a period of 25 years from the date of the Order,
be appropriated for the purpose of dwellings for persons of the
working classes, except in so far as the Minister may dispense
with such appropriation.
The terms of the Order are in strict accordance with the wording
of the Borough Medical Officer of Health's "representation" of
September 25th, 1924, supplemented by the evidence given by him
at the public inquiry which was held on November 19th, 1925.
Two houses in the area have already been closed, viz., 34 and
35, Walnut Tree Place.
Accommodation for many of the tenants who will be de-housed
under the Scheme is already temporarily available in the form of the
London County Council Tenements (in blocks), recently erected
and to be erected in the White Hart Square and Street and Robert
Raikes Street area, now known as the Kennings Estate.
The new blocks of buildings to be erected upon the China Walk
area site, when cleared, will accommodate 1,360 of the displaced
tenants out of the estimated total of 1,800 to be displaced. In
this way 440 tenants will require to be housed elsewhere permanently,
e.g., on the Kennings Estate, which has a prospective accommodation
for a total of 960 persons.
Representations and Closing Orders under Section 9 of
the Housing Act, 1925.
During 1927 no representations to the Council under Section 9
of the 1925 Housing Act were made, and, consequently, no Closing
Orders were issued by the Council.*
* Vide foot note Annual Report, 1925, p. 95.