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38
HOUSING
In 1920 further information was sought by, and furnished to, the "Unhealthy Area
Committee" appointed by the Ministry of Health. No report from that Committee had been
published at the end of the year.
Dilapidated Derelict Houses.—At the date of the Survey of 1919, 448 houses were reported
as standing empty—i.e. not in course of preparation for occupation—including 41 apparently
"derelict," the latter being more or less dilapidated.
For some unknown reasons certain owners of property will neither let nor sell their houses,
appearing to prefer to allow their property to deteriorate until it is uninhabitable. When such
houses become actually "dangerous structures" the District Surveyor takes action under
Sec. 116 of the Building Act of 1894, but until that stage is reached it seems practically
impossible to exercise any pressure on the house-owner. It is true that Sec. 115 of the same
Act, which is marginally noted "Removal of dilapidated and neglected buildings," appears to
have been drafted to meet these cases, but the provisions of that Section have not proved
workable, or, any way, are not enforced.
The "Ministry of Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, 1920" proposed to deal with
landlords who abstained from keeping their houses occupied by giving local authorities power
to take houses which had been empty for more than three months on leases—to end at
Christmas 1923—and to make such houses reasonably fit for occupation of the working classes.
The authority was to be empowered to force the taking on the owner and, subject to
arbitration if no agreement could be reached, to fix the rent to be paid to the owner, such
rent to be determined in part by the amount required to be spent to render the house fit for
occupation. The Bill was withdrawn by the Government.
Conversions.—Under Sec. 16 of the Housing, Town Planning, etc. Act, 1919, the
Ministry of Health is empowered to acquire land and/or houses for the erection, enlargement,
alteration, etc., of buildings, to render the same suitable for occupation by persons of the
working class. The cost of acquisition, alteration, adaptation, etc., is in the first instance
borne by H.M. Treasury, but has to be repaid by the local authority (Sec. 3, Housing
(Additional Powers) Act, 1919).
Sec. 12 of the same Act gives similar powers to the local authority. If there any be
restrictive covenants in the ground lease preventing "conversion," the County Court can set
such covenants aside if proof be adduced that the premises could not be readily let to a single
family owing to changes in the character of the locality—Section 27.
The last named Section (Sec. 27) can be used by private owners desiring to convert houses,
and under Sec. 22 of the same Act the local authority can advance money on loan to assist
such conversions.
Sec. 26 provides for Bye-laws for regulating certain details of construction of "tenement
houses." A model series of Bye-laws has been issued by the Ministry of Health and draft
Bye-laws have been prepared by the County Council—the authority for making Bye-laws for
London, to be enforced by the local authority—but the Bye-laws had not been confirmed at
the end of 1920.
The London Housing Board had a long list of empty properties—well over 300 addresses
—submitted to them for consideration as to suitability for conversion and a number of schemes
were prepared. In one instance only—viz., No. 30, Westbourne Square—was it found
practicable to carry out conversion, the estimated costs of all other schemes being held to be
prohibitive. The same has to be reported with regard to proposed conversions by the Borough
Council, No. 8, Warrington Crescent being the only premises the conversion of which was
found to be financially possible and even in that instance an annual deficit was estimated for.
The Department does not receive notice of conversions (as such) from private owners, and
the only information available is such as is obtained either by watchfulness of the Staff
(i.e. enquiry where unreported work is noted as in hand) or by Notices for Alterations, etc., toSanitary
Fittings. Where a house hitherto let to one family is let to many families without any
adaptation, the Department may have no knowledge of the "conversions" until one or other
of the occupiers complains to the Department. Unfortunately, there is good reason to believe
that there have been a good many instances of such "conversions." The Department had
knowledge of the conversion during 1920 of 77 houses into maisonettes or flats. The majority
—if not all—of those houses were occupied by single families. The conversions provide for
217 families, nearly three times the old-time number.