View report page

- 2 -
The Senior Food & Drugs Inspector includes in
the Report a summary of the investigations carried out.
Co-operation on the part of the Council regarding the
formation of a Clean Food Guild for the Borough was
considered also; but it was postponed pending an
investigation by the Food Inspectors into conditions
prevailing in the Borough, and chiefly because the Public
Health Committee felt that there should be a uniform method
of procedure in operation in all Boroughs, rather than
individual cases of practice, and the possibility of
divergencies in different areas.
(I might add that at the time of writing there
is further consideration being given on this special
subject, in conjunction with the Fulham Chamber of
Commerce).
As in the previous year continued difficulty
has been experienced in maintaining reasonable standards
of fitness in existing housing accommodation. Not
only have there been shortages of labour and material,
but the primary fact remains that much of the housing in
the Borough is old-some of it worn out even before the
last war period, and the effects of aerial warfare,
together with the almost entire cessation of repair
work during the war years, have led to rapid deterioration
which is very difficult to cope with.
Many properties are really not worth the
continual patching up necessary to preserve any kind of
minimal habitability; and the increasing use of Housing
Act, Sections 9 and 11 - the only course possible In many
cases - is creating a situation which is becoming more
and more formidable to the Council's Housing and Public
Health Departments from both financial and re-housing
aspects.
Owing to the economic situation created by
restriction of rents, many property owners appear to be
unable to maintain their properties (owing to the heavy
costs of repair work nowadays) to the standard to which
they would otherwise have been maintained; and this has
shown a reaction in the number of complaints received.
This question of housing is in my opinion far and away
the most important and difficult problem facing the
Borough Council, and the sooner long-delayed operations
can be commenced in regard to "systematic" clearance
of insanitary and overcrowded areas, and re-housing of
the public, the better for all concerned.