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The systematic house-to-house inspection of the area continued during the year and
every endeavour was made to encourage owners to improve their properties by converting
them into self-contained dwellings with the aid of improvement grants. Since the area was
declared, the Council approved grants in respect of 56 properties for the provision of 227
dwellings. Of these, work was completed in respect of 16 houses for the provision of 33
dwellings. In addition, the Council was currently dealing with applications in respect of a
further 9 houses at the end of the year.
As a result of the further house-to-house inspections which were carried out, notices
under the relevant sections of the Housing Acts were served upon the owners of those
houses where no steps were taken to bring them up to a reasonable standard for habitation.
The following is a summary of the total number of notices which were served in respect of
the properties in the area:
Housing Act, 1957
Section 9 127
Housing Act, 1961
Section 14 12
Section 15 121
Section 16 130
Management Orders made 10
During the year, it will be seen that works of improvement and conversion gathered
momentum in the area. In addition, further properties were acquired by Housing Trusts so
that the total owned by them is 57. Fourteen houses in the area are owned by the Council
and are already arranged as self-contained dwellings.
Although progress in the General Improvement Area was initially very slow, the
situation at the end of the year was more satisfactory. Persistent pressure is still necessary
on those owners who are reluctant to carry out more than the minimum works on their
properties.
Qualification Certificates
The procedure for dealing with applications for qualification certificates under Part
III of the Housing Act, 1969, as described in my earlier reports, was repealed during the
year and replaced by a revised procedure under Part III of the Housing Finance Act, 1972.
Although basically similar to the original procedure, the new one takes account of all those
cases where applicants fell into the pitfall of commencing the work before they obtained
their certificates of provisional approval and the certificates of fair rent and thus prevented
the Council from issuing the full qualification certificate. The applicant can now carry out
the work to make the dwelling qualify and then apply to the Council for the qualification
certificate.
The following shows the number of applications for qualification certificates dealt
with during the year:
Where amenities already provided
Applications received 44
Qualification Certificates issued 54
Qualification Certificates refused 27
Where amenities to be provided
Applications received 36
Provisional Certificates issued 34
Provisional Certificates refused 2
Qualification Certificates issued 21
General Conversion from Controlled to Regulated Tenancies
Under the provisions of Section 35 of the Housing Finance Act, 1972, a general
programme was introduced for the conversion of all Controlled tenancies to Regulated
tenancies over a period of 2Vi years, based on the rateable value of the dwelling on 31st
March, 1972. The first group of dwellings, with rateable values of £95 or more, become
regulated on 1st January, 1973, and this is followed at six-monthly intervals by dwellings
with gradually decreasing rateable values.