An official representation, that the houses within a particular area were unfit for human habitation, was to be made to the Central Authority, the Metropolitan Board of Works, by the Medical Officer of Health of a Vestry or District Board, and the Metropolitan Board was empowered to declare the same to be an unhealthy area, and to make an improvement scheme in respect of it. If it decided that an improvement scheme ought to be made, it should forthwith make such a scheme, which, after sundry formalities, was embodied in a Provisional Order which had to be confirmed by Parliament. The compensation to be paid for the property so taken might be settled by agreement between the Metropolitan Board of Works and the owner, but where no agreement was arrived at, an arbitrator was to be appointed by the Secretary of State. The arbitrator was to assess the compensation at the fair market value of the lands concerned, due regard being had to the nature and then condition of the property, but no additional allowance was to be made in respect of the compulsory purchase of the area. The value settled, and the land having passed into the hands of the Metropolitan Board of Works, the obligation was imposed on that body of pulling down the buildings, and selling, or letting, the cleared ground for the erection of improved dwellings for the same number of people. The hardship of working class and poorer persons being turned out of houses and no other accommodation being provided for them was formally recognised in this matter, and the scheme had to provide for the-- "Accommodation of at the least as many persons of the working class as may be displaced in the area ... in suitable dwellings which, unless there are any reasons to the contrary, shall be situate within the limits of the same area, or in the vicinity thereof. It shall also provide for proper sanitary arrangements." The Act was intended to relieve owners of such property without loss or benefit, and several representations as to unhealthy areas were made to the Metropolitan Board. The facts stated in these representations and subsequently brought out in evidence in the public inquiries held, were illuminating as to the terrible depths which the conditions of life of numbers of the people had been allowed to reach, without the intervention of the law, or the staying hand of the freeholder, lessees, or sub-lessees, who derived financial profit from the property. The Medical Officer of Health for Limehouse described one of them:-- "The area, though not large, contained abominations sufficient for an area three times its size. Here were crowded houses, built no one knows when; how they stood was a marvel, their walls bulged, their floors sunk, an indescribable musty odour pervaded them; water supply, drainage, closets, all were bad, and in my opinion, nothing could remedy such a state of things short of pulling down the rickety buildings."