| Description | July 1913 - February 1916, minutes 1 - 269. The first minute (30 July 1913) refers to the formation of the committee with regard to Council Resolution 22,377, appointing the Housing Enquiry Committee to investigate the housing conditions of the poor in Birmingham, and to look at what was being done elsewhere. There follows a summary of previous housing legislation and its effects, following the passing of the 1875 Improvement Act (16 October 1913, minute 9). Of 218,968 square yards of land acquired by the Corporation, only £9166 were appropriated for artisan’s dwellings. There were 2218 buildings on the land, of which 1,651 were taken down. 41 houses were resold and 526 buildings remained. There are reports with detailed statistics on the provision of working class housing during the period 1875 - 1913, including the Summer Lane and Cowper Street houses, comprising 82 dwellings, including 20 shops with dwellings attached; a later scheme at Dalton Street, comprising block tenements to accommodate 100 families; a proposal for another building in Dalton Street to accommodate 23 families, which was jettisoned; the proposal to erect 22 cottages in Lawrence Street (renamed Ryder Street in 1890), Old Cross Street, Ryder Street and Luke Street (81 houses in total); the construction of Corporation Street, 1875 - 1900; the Milk Street Scheme, which entailed the compulsory purchase and demolition of houses and workshops on (1) Woodcock Street, Holte Street and Heneage Street and (2) Milk Street and Little Ann Street; the introducation of the Bordesley Green Housing Scheme, July 1900; the appointment of a new Housing Committee in 1901; and the rejection of a proposal to build 76 new tenements around Potter Street, Staniforth Street and Moland Street, following the formation of the Joint Housing Committee, 1901 (see BCC/1/EX). There are references in the minutes of October 1903 to the committee compiling evidence on the subject of housing by people who were qualified to talk about it, but the evidence does not seem to have been gleaned from the people directly affected by housing shortages and housing policy, the tenants. By July 1906 the minutes start to include committee reports highlighting the following recommendations for future policy, namely (1) continuing the improvement of the Central Areas of Birmingham, as before, (2) the maintenance of improvements already undertaken, and (3) the ‘encouragement of, and assistance in, the provision of healthy, cheerful homes on the outskirts of the city, and to assist in effecting this end they expressed the opinion that fresh legislation was essential in order to carry out a vigorous policy of land purchase.' There are also sets of questions and responses of a survey sent out to housing societies and tenants associations (such as Harborne Tenants and the Erdington Tenants' Defence League), employers and private individuals for their opinions on the current housing shortages and the effectiveness of local government policy (12 November 1913, minutes 24 - 25). Once again, the responses of individual working class tenants were not collected; another survey instigated a year later (11 June 1914, minute 140 and returns, 17 September 1914, minute 201) surveyed employers only (mainly large scale industrial concerns), asking them whether they felt their employees were well served with affordable housing in close proximity to their place of work. This became a point of contention for critics of the new out-of-town housing Corporation estates in peripheral regions like Weoley Castle and Kingstanding during the inter-war years. The majority of this information was gleaned from research undertaken during the Suburban Birmingham project (2008 - 2013). |