View report page

63
conditions, would certainly have been their fate; but, on account
of the great scarcity of accommodation for this class of persons,
we are not able to enforce closing orders.
The properties above referred to are in fact no worse, but
much better than many of the other 1,300 houses in this Borough
requiring demolition. The owners were taken to the Police Court
for not having carried out the necessary trifling works required to
keep these houses in at least a cleanly condition so long as they
were in occupation, but the magistrate, on the application of the
owners, made a closing order, which order has not been complied
with up to the present, simply because the tenants cannot find
alternative accommodation.
Whenever we now serve notices upon owners of this class of
property, they accordingly immediately threaten to apply to the
Court for a closing order, which they know under the existing
shortage of housing accommodation cannot be enforced. It therefore
follows that tenants of this class of house are compelled to
occupy such property without the Council being able to ensure
that the owners shall ke,ep them in any way in a reasonable
condition of cleanliness and repair during the period of such occupation.