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HOUSING.
New Dwellings.
Under the Council's Building Schemes 141 new dwellings
were completed during the year and 932 were under construction
at the end of the year. At 31st December there were 7,241
tenancies under the Council's control in all types of properties,
including 1,527 permanent dwellings and 519 prefabricated
bungalows.
Requisitioned Properties.
Close co-operation exists between the Public Health Department
and the Housing Department in relation to requisitioned
properties. Where sanitary nuisances in Council-controlled
houses are brought to the notice of the Sanitary Inspectors, a
memorandum specifying such nuisances is forwarded to the
Housing Department for attention. Two hundred and sixty-one
memoranda were passed to the Housing Department during
1953.
The Housing Department notify the Public Health Department
in all cases where it is proposed to de-requisition a house
owing to its bad condition, in order that the premises may be
inspected from the point of view of dealing with them under
Section 11 of the Housing Act, 1936. Information of 21 such
properties were received by the Public Health Department
during the year.
At the request of the Housing Department inspections are
made by officers of the Public Health Department of underground
rooms, basements and parts of requisitioned properties to
see whether they are fit for human habitation within the meaning
of the Housing Acts. Sixty-one parts of premises were inspected
in this way during the year under review and in 24 instances the
Director of Housing was notified that they were unfit.
Slum Clearance.
Under the five-year Slum Clearance Programme agreed
between the Borough Council and the London County Council,
no areas were due to be declared by this Authority during the
year under review.
The Council gave further consideration to the Astley Street
Clearance Area with a view to its acquisition together with other