Jemma Smith

200238427

Criminology and Sociology

The Public Health Act 1848

        Living conditions had become extremely poor in industrialised cities, which led to great housing difficulties. Houses were built back to back and there were often several families forced to live in a single house. There were no roads and no public transport so houses were built as close to factories as possible where smoke and fumes were pumped out. The was also no drainage system and a poor water supply- the local river where people got their water for cooking, cleaning and washing was also the river where their waste was dumped. Due to the cramped living space and the poor conditions illness was rife and spread quickly. The healthy, the middle classes, lived where the roads were paved and near running water or with access to running water in their homes.

        It was thought that the reason why the poor were often ill and died so young was due to their way of living- spending money on drink rather than on food for example. It was never put down to the environment they lived in. This is why for a long time nothing was done to improve living conditions. Gradual build up of research showed it was in fact the environment that was the problem.

        It was eventually noticed that the middle-classes were being attacked by major cholera epidemics, which had originated in the slums. Though diseases like typhoid killed a much larger number than cholera, only the latter was acknowledged because it did not just affect the working classes, it also affected the rich. Edwin Chadwick carried out research, which clearly showed the link between environment and illness. Class killed- the poorer you were the younger you would die. He also found that people in rural areas, whether working class or middle class had a longer life expectancy than those in urban areas. In 1838 Chadwick stated that “…expenditure on poor relief could be reduced if preventative action with regard to the environment…” (Fraser 1973) was taken.

        Middleclass factory owners would not want their work force dying at the age of seventeen to twenty after spending money training them to use machinery. It would be in their interest in more ways than one to help improve sanitary conditions. This would make them more willing to pay higher rates, which would have been needed in order to build an entire sanitary and waste disposal unit, if it meant their workforce would have a greater life expectancy in the long term.

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The National Insurance Act 1911

        David Lloyd George had been poor himself when growing up so knew exactly how it felt. There had been a huge divide between the rich and the poor for a great number of years. Lloyd George decided to do what he could to help those with lower incomes so that if they earned less than a certain amount, for every child in the family a small sum of money would be paid to them. Though the sum was small it showed acknowledgement of the burden poorer families faced (Fraser 1973). For the families ...

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