View report page

70
which I fully explained in my report for 1922. The
various quibbles which arose at Ministry of Health
enqiuries, regarding such things as:—
(1) Work partially and badly done by the owner,
and therefore done over again by the Borough Council
in order to make a satisfactory job.
(2) The time to be allowed for the completion of
the job by the owner.
(3) All the trouble and expense gone to by a contractor
or by the Borough Council itself in getting out
estimates for work which at the last moment is undertaken
by the owner himself.
(4) The absolute necessity of adhering strictly to
the letter of the statutory notice in carrying out the
repairs by the Council. Anyone who has had practical
experience of the class of house repair carried out under
under this section will realise what this means.
These are only quoted to illustrate a few of our
original difficulties which still remain untouched by
Section 10 of the 1923 Act. In all these matters
differences of opinion arose between the Council and
the Ministry of Health Inspector at Inquiries held
during 1922.
Despite the fact that we have confined our efforts
to securing the remedy of those housing defects which
can be dealt with under the Public Health (London)
Act, the Metropolis Management Acts, and the London
County Council (General Powers) Acts, we have been
successful in getting considerable improvements to
property effected and generally speaking housing
repairs have been efficiently dealt with.
The appointment of the Temporary Housing Inspector
was terminated in June, 1923, and as a result
the amount of house-to-house inspection has been
considerably reduced. In my opinion, owing to the
state which much of the property in Fulham has reached
on account of lack of repairs during the war, and the
ravages of age and sub-let tenancies, the practice of