View report page

40
Category 3° Overcrowding above the legal
standard but within the Modified
Standard, where there are
special medical reasons involved.
Category 4° As in Category 3, but without
special medical circumstances.
Cases within Categories 1, 2 and 3 have been considered
by a special Sub-Committee of the Public Health Committee which was
established for that purpose. Cases within Category 4 have not been
reported but records have been made and the families are kept under
observation by the public health inspectors who try and secure abatement
by persuasion.
In November, 1958, the Public Health Committee decided that
it was opportune to abandon the use of the "Modified Standard" and
to deal with all cases of overcrowding on the strict interpretation
of the Housing Act, 1957> standard; distinguishing between "penal"
and "non penal" cases.
Eighty-five new cases of overcrowding came before the
Sub-Committee during 1958.
The number of cases of overcrowding abated during the year
was two hundred and thirty-nine (including one hundred and sixty-four
"Category 4" cases).
In the last fifteen years, the Special Sub-Committee have
dealt with 1,411 cases of overcrowding and a total of 1,152 cases
have been abated.
Assessment of Housing Priorities on Medical Grounds
During the yeax one hundred and seventy-seven applications for
re-housing on medical grounds were examined, and recommendations for the
award of additional points were made to the Chief Housing Officer. In
each case the precise medical condition and resultant disability were
determined (frequently necessitating communication with the family doctor
or with the hospital attended.) The premises were inspected in detail
to ascertain the extent and nature of the existing accommodation| the
adequacy of day and sleeping space? the risk of infection; the existence
of remediable or irremediable sanitary or structural defects, and the
existence of inconveniences, such as stairs which might be prejudicial
to the patient.
On this information and that supplied by the Chief Housing
Officer, an assessment of points to be awarded on medical grounds was made.
In one case, a recommendation for re-housing on medical grounds
was also made to the London County Council.
(At the end of 1956, the London County Council notified the
165,000 applicants on their waiting lists (Categories A, B and C) that
only 2,000 could expect to receive an offer of accommodation within the
next three years. No further names would be added to the waiting lists,
although new applicants could, if they wished, place their names on
a "deferred" list. A little over a hundred houses a year would be
reserved for cases of very serious medical condition, aggravated by
housing circumstances, confirmed by the County Medical Officer of Health.
Applications for these must be made by the family medical practitioner
concerned (or by the Chest Physician) direct to the County Medical
Officer. In these circumstances, the number of cases notified to the
London County Council as possessing medical claims for re-housing has
been reduced.)
The provision of new housing accommodation
The post-war housing schemes completed in Kensington by the