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II. Various reports were made by the sanitary inspectors with
regard to overcrowding, and in view of the shortage of houses, we
were driven to rely on re-arrangements of families. When this
was insufficient the difficulty was sometimes got over by the
Guardians taking over the care of the children.
Overcrowding complaints have not been so numerous as in the
past, probably owing to the fact that while the present difficulties
in the way of house-room exist it is useless to expect any action to
be taken. Those that have been received in great measure have
come from other tenants and occupers of the house who were
anxious to increase their own accommodation. It has often arisen
by the admission of tenants stating that they have a family of a
certain number, which when they have entered on a tenancy suddenly
increases. No action in the way of ejecting a tenant has been taken,
but where it has been possible to arrange for extra accommodation
by re-arranging the sleeping rooms this has been insisted on, and
even right visits have been paid tor this purpose.
The causes of overcrowding are in the main due to two causes,
desire on the part of the inhabitants to live near their work and
inability to pay for a requisite number of rooms.
Fitness of Houses.
III. As mentioned above, the general standard has been much
improved owing to the greater care with which repairs can be
carried out and the disappearance of hindrances to the supply of
material. The ordinary defects were, apart from defective roofs,
floors and windows out of repair, chiefly those of dilapidated walls
and ceilings. In other words, decorative repairs which usually
appeal to the uninitiated so much more strongly than the more serious
ones of damp and of defect in drains. These were aggravated by the
fact that they exist either in old or worn-out houses, and also in
many such as exist in the newer-built part of the Borough, ranging
from 50 to 40 years old.
It is difficult to say how far they are due to lack of proper
supervision. This often exists in the case of absentee landlords,
also in those when provision in the way of house property has
foolishly been bequeathed to dependents who have no other source
of income, and who are unable to meet the extra financial strain.
There is the class of landlord who is bent on making as
much as he can out of his houses. But the tenants can by no
means be held blameless, for one finds that houses that have been
put into condition have soon become as bad as ever. By an irony
of fate the bad landlord seems to get the good tenant and vice versa.
In consequence of a notice, an owner had stripped a room and
refused to do anything further. The stripping itself was not good,
but it was pointed out that the absence of paper, however unsightly
and uncomfortable it might be, did not render rooms unhealthy. A
small sub-committee was, however, appointed, and after long discussion
decided to call on the owner under Sec, 28 of the Housing
Act. 1919.