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As only 26 summonses were eventually issued in 321 cases of overcrowding, and only two
summonses in regard to 305 cases of indecent occupation in the five years, it will be seen that
626 families were able to improve their accommodation without the Council having to resort to
extreme measures. Moreover, the figures for 1929 and 1930, when compared with those for the
preceding years, suggest that those on whom notices were served for overcrowding had less difficulty
in securing alternative accommodation than was experienced in previous years.
The erection of houses by local authorities and public utility societies during the past ten years
must have done much to relieve the acute overcrowding which was found to exist at the end of the
War, but it is doubtful whether the community has gained the full advantage from the public
money which has been spent on the provision of new housing accommodation. Indeed, experience
in Kensington has shown that many cases of overcrowding can be ameliorated by securing a more
even distribution of the population throughout the accommodation already available, where this
is reasonably practicable.
Generally speaking, tenants for new houses provided by local authorities or public utility
societies have been selected not merely on the grounds that they can pay the rents fixed, but also
because their existing home conditions are unsatisfactory on health grounds. But on the removal
of a family to a new house, there has, in the absence of special measures, been no guarantee that the
overcrowding or other unsatisfactory conditions in the vacated rooms will not immediately become
as serious as before.
Whilst it is true that in many cases the unsatisfactory conditions are beyond the control of
the owner, owing to the operation of the Rent Restrictions Acts, there are nevertheless other cases
where the responsible person (often the tenant in occupation) has not exercised that care in the control
of the houses which is essential in the management of working-class property. When tenants go
to new houses, some of the superior tenants or persons in control are prepared to allow the vacated
rooms to become overcrowded again or occupied by a family not in urgent need of new accommodation.
Often it would be better, on health grounds, to allow the remaining families in the house to
absorb the empty rooms or, if the house is not overcrowded, to allow the rooms to be occupied by a
family living under congested conditions elsewhere.
It cannot be expected that every person in control of private property will take the same
interest as a local authority in securing the spacing of the population with a view to obtaining the
most suitable hygienic conditions for all concerned. He, like any other business man, is naturally
inclined to look in the first place for the best possible return in rent for his capital outlay ; but
if he can be induced to co-operate with the local authority in this matter of even distribution with
a view to eliminating instances of overcrowding, the community as a whole will gain greater benefit
from the new housing accommodation which has been provided.
With a view to securing the greatest possible advantage from new houses provided by the
Borough Council, arrangements were made in Kensington early in 1925 for officers managing the
Council's houses to notify the Medical Officer of Health immediately of the name and address of
any tenant selected for a new home. The information has enabled the officers of the Public Health
Department to know several weeks in advance of rooms which will become vacant, with the result
that they have been able to approach the persons in control (frequently before they were aware
that vacancies would arise in the near future) and urge that the rooms might be let to Kensington
families known to the Public Health Department to be living under overcrowded or unsatisfactory
conditions. Later on in the same year, the Housing Department of the London County Council
were asked to send similar information in respect of Kensington families accepted as tenants for
County Council houses, in order that a similar procedure could be adopted in regard to rooms vacated
by persons leaving the borough for such houses. Public utility societies and housing trusts who
have built houses in or near the borough since 1925 have been invited to supply similar information,
in respect of Kensington families accepted as tenants.

Whilst overcrowding in Kensington has been dealt with rigidly under the by-laws for houses
let in lodgings for some years past, the Council have been reluctant to take proceedings and the
Magistrates have been loath to give full effect to the provisions of the law during the post-War
period of shortage of housing accommodation. But the Public Health Committee have felt that