View report page

100
Housing.
The housing conditions in Battersea, so far as adequate housing
accommodation is concerned, are still very unsatisfactory, and
during the year 1928 hundreds of cases of congestion and overcrowding have been brought to the notice of the Housing Committee.
For reasons which have been fully referred to in previous Annual
Reports it has been impossible, except to a very limited extent,
to remedy these insanitary and otherwise undesirable conditions.
Some slight alleviation of this distressing situation has been effected
through the additional dwellings provided by the Borough Council,
and by the quota allocated to Battersea by the London County
Council on their various Housing Estates in cases of special hardship,
&c. Unfortunately, however, there is still a large number of
families in Battersea living under conditions which are, on sanitary
and social grounds deplorable.
New Houses.
It has been pointed out in previous Reports that the Borough
Council have had very limited opportunities of relieving the congestion and overcrowding resulting from the housing inadequacy
in Battersea, practically the whole of the available area of the
Borough being built upon. Such few opportunities as have arisen
have been seized by them to erect working class dwellings.
Apart from the Plough Road Improvement Scheme and the
Plough Road Scheme Extension (vide pp. 106-7) no new workmen's
dwellings were erected by the Council during 1928.
During 1928 under private enterprise one house was erected
in Blenkarne Road and one large house in Queens Square was
converted so as to provide accommodation for seven families.
Overcrowding.
It is to be regretted that a considerable amount of overcrowding
still exists notwithstanding the large number of houses which have
been built by the London County Council and by private enterprise
in London and its environs. Unfortunately these have had little
effect on the housing question in Battersea. As pointed out in
previous Annual Reports owing to the remoteness of the newlybuilt. houses from their work there is a reluctance on the part of
the inhabitants of the Borough to accept accommodation on these
estates. A more specific difficulty which has also been referred
to is that in many cases it is quite impossible for the workers to
pay the rents demanded for such houses. It is, therefore, essential
that some steps should be taken to enable families, especially the
large poor families of limited means to be provided with accommodation at rents which they are able to pay. Several suggestions
have been put forward to meet this difficulty, the most practical of