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90
Housing.
The activities of the Council in housing matters were, with the
exception of the Plough Road Improvement Scheme as described
in my Annual Report for 1923, confined to the repair of unfit
house property. There is still, unfortunately, a serious amount
of overcrowding in the lower wards of the Borough, and cases
have come to light of families of seven, eight or nine persons occupying
a single room. The conditions in such gross instances are
little short of appalling both from the health and moral standpoints.
These insanitary conditions are incapable of being remedied until
the housing shortage has been abated by the provision of an adequate
number of working-class dwellings let at rents which are within
the means of those requiring them. It is to be regretted that the
economic situation and other difficulties have prevented a more
rapid provision of houses, especially working-class dwellings, to
relieve the distressing and dangerous conditions which are such
an unsatisfactory feature of the housing situation since the War.
It is to be hoped, therefore, that the recent legislative measure
passed by Parliament, viz., the Housing (Financial Provisions)
Act, 1924, which came into force on August 7th last, will result
in a speeding up of the building of houses in adequate numbers
and capable of being let at reasonably low rentals. The Act is
primarily intended to establish continuity in dealing with the
housing problem and by a co-ordination of all the resources of the
building industry to ensure the production of houses on a sufficient
scale to meet the exigencies of the moment and to make provision
for the growth of the population and for the replacement of unsatisfactory
accommodation. The Act provides for a programme
extending over 15 years and aims at the production at a gradually
increasing annual rate of approximately two and a half-million
houses in Great Britain. The Act further provides for a subsidy
from the Exchequer of £9 per annum for 40 years (£12 in the case
of agricultural parishes) in respect of houses built for letting, under
certain specified conditions as to fair wages and as to the letting of
the houses when built. In the case of houses not subject to these
special conditions the subsidy is at the rate of £6 per annum for 20
years. These financial proposals should stimulate the mass
production of houses both by Municipalities and by private
enterprise, and there should be, given public-spirited co-operation
between the various interests concerned in the production of
houses, a progressive annual improvement in the existing
deplorable housing situation.
Overcrowding.
The extent and prevalence of serious overcrowding in certain
of the lower wards of the Borough has been referred to in previous
Annual Reports. There is, unfortunately, little, if any,