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16
(6) adequate washing accommodation;
(7) adequate facilities for preparing and cooking food, and
(8) a well ventilated store for food.
The Manual was, however, published in 1919, the year also
of the Housing and Town Planning Act, under which all these
things were to be brought about, but which has apparently placed
in considerable difficulties every local authority that has attempted
to use its provisions in other than very carefully selected cases.
It is difficult in Hackney to enforce the carrying out of even
minor repairs in view of the age of a great deal of the property
and the fact that it is not considered a business proposition to place
old property of this description in decent condition, and as an
example of this I may instance Nos. 1-7, Dockway, where notice
to carry out repairs that necessitated the spending of under £70
for the whole property was met by the threat that the property
would be closed. A Summons was heard on July 31st, on August
1st the Magistrate viewed the property, and on August 10th the
case again came before the Court, the Magistrate refused to make
a Closing Order and no further opposition was experienced in
enforcing the necessary repairs. But this difficulty is constantly
recurring.
On January 5th a deputation from the Borough Council was
received at the Ministry of Health and urged the seriousness o."
the housing question in Hackney upon the Ministry. There had
been up to that date 2,224 applicants for houses. The list was
closed on March 31st, although letters, some of them most pitiable,
are still received.
The total number of tenants that can be accommodated under
the Council's scheme is 179. Of the applications placed by the
Committee on the special list as urgent 58 were from families
living in one room, and 51 of these were from families containing
two or more children.
The Committee necessarily took all circumstances into consideration
in arriving at a decision as to special necessity, the