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(2) Crescent Street Improvement Area.—This area, consisting of 129 premises with a population
of 1,782 persons, was declared to be an improvement area in April, 1934. The by-laws for the
abatement of overcrowding and the improvement of the houses were confirmed by the Minister
of Health in June, 1934.
During 1935 the council closed 193 unfit basement rooms for living and sleeping purposes, and
displaced therefrom 82 families comprising 299 persons. In addition, there were 65 families of
349 persons living under overcrowded conditions in rooms above basement level. All these 147
families have been satisfactorily rehoused and all the unfit closed basements are now unoccupied.
Reconditioning of the houses should have been undertaken in 1936, but in that year a joint
sub-committee was appointed to consider proposals for the entire redevelopment of the area,
including other houses and land adjoining.
At the close of the year the joint sub-committee still had under consideration the redevelopment
of the enlarged area.
(3) Treverton Street Improvement Area—This area, consisting of 238 houses, was declared an
improvement area in May, 1935. The population at that time was 2,449 persons.
Considerable difficulty was experienced in obtaining for this area by-laws similar to those in
force in the Southam Street and Crescent Street improvement areas.
After negotiations between the Ministry of Health, the county council and the borough council,
special new by-laws were made under the Housing Act, 1935 ; these came into operation on the
1st August, 1936, and they are practically the same as those for the other two improvement areas.
The preliminary steps to be taken were the closure of unfit basement dwellings, the rehousing
of persons so displaced, and the elimination of overcrowding. Closing orders have been made in
respect of 219 underground rooms and undertakings from owners to make the rooms fit for habitation
have been accepted in 52 cases.
Including both overcrowded families and occupiers of closed basement rooms, there were
227 families (1,025 persons) scheduled for displacement.

The effect of these rehousing operations was that the population was reduced by approximately
20 per cent.
Reconditioning of houses under Part II of the Housing Act, 1936.
Reconditioning of the houses was commenced in December, 1936, by the service of notices
under section 9 of the Housing Act, 1936, and the following table gives a summary of the results
obtained up to the end of 1937 :—■
Notices served in 1936 which were outstanding on 1st January, 1937 ... 11
Notices served from 1st January to 31st December, 1937 93
Appeals by owners to the county court against notices —
Notices satisfactorily complied with by the owners 50
Notices in respect of which the council carried out the work following
default by the owners 2
Notices in respect of which progress was being made by the owners on
31st December, 1937 23
Notices in respect of which the council's contractors were engaged in
executing repairs on 31st December, 1937 . 1
Notices in respect of which nothing had been done on 31st December, 1937
(the time allowed had not expired in these cases) ... ... ... 28
During the year four houses in the area were reconditioned by the owners voluntarily.
The number of houses remaining to be inspected and dealt with on 31st December, 1937, was
130. At the time of writing (May, 1938) a further thirty-three notices under section 9 of the
Housing Act, 1936, have been served.