Appendix E
Housing Strategy by Sir Reg. Goodwin, leader of the Greater London Council
Housing
People want more than a roof over their heads. The maintenance of social balance demands that all sections of the population must be able to find accommodation within London as attractive as in the new and expanding towns or anywhere else in the country. The general dissatisfaction with high rise buildings is now well known, this sort of housing development will not therefore be acceptable in the future. There is also a growing demand for living space indicated by the fact that despite the rapid decline in London's population in the last ten years, the number of households has not fallen; and there is a demand for many households to have some small open area of their own, no matter how small, where both parents and children can ‘do their own thing'. Consequently, new housing must include a mixture of purpose built homes for all ages and sizes of household, and despite the pressures and the urgency care must be taken to avoid the excessively high densities and poor environmental standards that might alleviate the housing lists, but leave a certain legacy of similar problems to be faced in the not too distant future. For these reasons areas with a high incidence of housing problems and the greatest demand for housing must not be left to tackle the problem within the limitations of their own resources and the land available within their administrative boundaries. A solution on a London wide scale is needed, but soulless dormitories must be avoided. Ideally, people should live near or have easy access to their places of work, and feel themselves to be an integral part of a socially and economically balanced community. The maintenance and enhancement of the major and local centres mentioned earlier should make this possible.
A large proportion of London's housing stock is old and deteriorating more rapidly than it is at present being improved. This cannot be allowed to continue or a bow wave of problems will build up as this decade passes. At present the problem is concentrated in the inner areas in the privately rented sector but increasingly it will appear in other areas in the owner occupied sector. A concerted effort to reduce this problem to one of routine maintenance and repair by a definite date is required. To this end a programme of action balancing rehabilitation and redevelopment, but with much more emphasis on rehabilitation than in the past, must be drawn up so that progress can be checked against the programme and the building industry may have a basis for planning to meet future demands on its
resources.
In many of the worst areas housing problems are only the most evident of a whole assembly of special problems which will not be cured just by action on the housing front. In these cases housing action must be co-ordinated with contributions from the social, welfare, health and educational and employment services if a lasting solution is to be found.
For all low and middle income households there is a marked lack of accommodation available at a price they can afford. This together with the
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