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52
London County Council have two standards:—
(1) In letting all tenements no applicant is accepted the
number of whose family would exceed two persons per room,
including in the word person both adults and children. The
minimum floor space is: for a bedroom, 96 square feet; for a living
room, 114 square feet; and the height is uniformly 8 feet 6 inches,
giving 1,224 cubic feet for a living room, and 816 for a bedroom.
(2) The Council takes a census once a year for the purpose of
ascertaining and dealing with cases of overcrowding ; any tenement
occupied by more than two persons per room is considered to be
overcrowded, but in this case no child under the age of 5 years is
reckoned to be a person, and children between the ages of 5 and
10 years are reckoned as one half a person only. Tenants whose
families exceed the number of two persons per room on this basis
are found further accommodation at the earliest moment consistent
with the avoidance of the infliction of hardship.
"Peabody Donation Fund.—The nominal scale of accommodation is
based on the number of persons to each room, so that the cubic space
would vary slightly according as to whether the rooms were large or
small. The maximum limits are as follows :—
One room Man, wife, with one child not over 6 years old.
Two rooms Man, wife, with four children under 12 years old.
Three rooms Man, wife, with six children under 12 years old.
Four rooms Man, wife, with eight children under 12 years old.
" A child over 12 years old counts as two children under 12.
" The average size of the Peabody rooms is considerably larger than
that of the London County Council.
" The Guinness Trust.—Each person over 7 years of age is allowed
400 cubic feet.
" Each person under 7 years is allowed 200 cubic feet.
" In determining the number of rooms which any applicant must
take, the sex as well as the age of the children is, of course, considered.
" By-laws for Houses let in Lodgings.—300 cubic feet of free air space
is required for each person over 10 years of age, and 200 cubic feet
for each person under 10 years of age, in a room used exclusively as
a sleeping apartment. For rooms not used as a sleeping apartment
exclusively (i.e., a room used both as a sleeping and living room), the
limits are 400 cubic feet and 200 cubic feet respectively.
" I find that, in Glasgow, houses of three rooms and under containing
less than 2,000 cubic feet are ' ticketed,' and there must be at least
400 cubic feet for each adult or child over 10 years old. In one-room