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persons living together as husband, and. wife) occupying sleeping
accommodation in the same room.
The premises affected vary considerably and render impracticable
the provision of a single rigid code of requirements
applicable to all cases. However, the Council have adopted certain
minimum standards of the essential services and amenities which they
will consider as satisfactory in appropriate cases.
The work of enforcing the Council's standards falls into
two categories:-
(a) where large houses are properly converted for
multiple occupation it is found that in practice
that owners and contractors co-operate willingly
in providing the necessary amenities;
(b) in the case of houses which are let for multiple
occupation without proper conversion (especially
furnished lettings) a certain amount of difficulty
has been experienced in enforcing the standards.
Usually these houses are of the poorer class
property and the occupants are somewhat nomadic
in character. In these houses it is difficult
to obtain the exact details of occupation, and
when pressure is brought to bear upon the landlord
he generally has no hesitation in serving
notices to quit. In a few cases the Council
have had to resort to formal action under
Section 36 of the Housing Act, 1957, in order to
obtain the desired improvements, and four summonses
were issued in respect of continuing offences.
Inadequacy of present housing legislation relating to tenement houses.
The powers given to the Council by Sections 36 and 90 of the
Housing Act, 1957 replaced the Bye-laws for houses let in lodgings
which imposed obligations on landlords and tenants to effect the
proper maintenance of communal parts of tenement houses. The new
powers have proved to be an inadequate substitute for the Bye-laws.
During the year special attention was paid to a group of
terraced houses (Powis Terrace) which some years ago had been
converted into self-contained flats. None of the flats, however, was
let as a single dwelling, most of the rooms being let separately. In
the 16 houses in this block there were no less than 140 lettings
occupied by approximately 300 persons, of whom about 75% were coloured.
A survey revealed that in only 10 of the lettings was there statutory
overcrowding and of these 6 were non-penal cases. Apart from a
complete absence of properly ventilated food cupboards, the amount of
sanitary accommodation and facilities for the preparation, storage
and cooking of food were adequate. Thus there was little the
Council could do under existing legislation to remedy the admittedly
unsatisfactory conditions.
Many attempts have been made to obtain improvements by
exercising the Council's powers under the Public Health (London) Act,
1936. These attempts, however, have been frequently frustrated,
partly because of the difficulty of ascertaining exactly who was the
legal owner at any particular time. A further difficulty was the
reluctance of some tenants to attend court.
One of the factors mainly accounting for the squalid
appearance of these houses was the condition of the entrance halls,
the communal staircases and kitchens. The artificial lighting of
the halls and staircases was adequate, but the decorations were old