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85
Housing Repairs.—In my Annual Reports for 1922,
1923 and 1924, I gave in very full detail an account of
the Council's activities under Section 28 of the Housing,
Town Planning, etc., Act, 1919, now superseded by
Section 3 of the Housing Act, 1925. I wiH only
therefore in this report summarise the work which was
done. Dyring the years 1921 and 1922, this Section
was freely used by the Sanitary Inspectors. In 1921
376 notices were issued and in 1922 686 such notices,
requiring owners to do the necessary repairs to make
the house in all respects reasonably fit for human
habitation. During this period some £2,105 was spent
by the Borough Council on carrying out the necessary
repairs under this Section in default of the owners.
It was found in practice, however, that it was extremely
difficult in certain cases to recover this money from the
owners, owing to certain legal technicalities, and in the
case of two Ministry of Health Inquiries the sums of £26
odd and £19 odd were deducted from the Borough
Council's claims. In another case the Borough Council
claimed the sum of £29 10s. 3d., and proceeded to
endeavour to recover this amount from the owner
by legal process. The stipendiary magistrate, however,
in place of the sum of £29 10s. 3d., only awarded
the Borough Council the sum of £10. After these and
other similar experiences the Borough Council decided
to proceed in the matter of housing repairs as a general
rule under the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, and
only to make use of Section 3 of the Housing Act,
1925, in exceptional cases. During the year under
review it was found necessary to carry out certain
repairs to numbers 5 and 7, Campbell Street, in default
of the owners. The account for this work has not
yet been rendered by the contractors, but every
endeavour will be made in due course to recover this
from the owners.
House-to-House-Inspections have been continued
during 1925 as in previous years and this has been
carried out by each of the district inspectors. During
the five years of this survey report the following
number of house-to-house inspections have been
made:—