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5
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the Health
and Sanitary State of the Borough for the year, 1931.
It is again my privilege to record the high position which
the Borough continues to maintain as one of the healthiest in the
Metropolis. The vital and morbid statistics for the year under
report are satisfactory and show little deviation from the uniformly
high standard of recent years.
The birth-rate however, it is to be regretted, shows a slow but
stead}' decline, the rate for 1931 being the lowest yet recorded.
The general death-rate and the infantile mortality rate, though
slightly higher than in the previous year, are nevertheless satisfactory
having regard to the great industrial depression and increase of
unemployment—conditions which tend to lower resistance in the
individual and to predispose to ill-health and disease.
Infectious disease has been remarkably non-prevalent, in the
year's morbid statistics, with the exception of Tuberculosis, which
shows a slight increase in mortality as compared with previous
years.
The Maternity and Child Welfare work of the Council has been
carried on satisfactorily during the year, and the results attained
have been as successful as in past years. Owing to the need for
strict economy in the present financial stringency, it has not been
considered opportune to attempt any further developments in this
field of Public Health Activity, involving additional expenditure.
The Ante-Natal side of the Maternity and Child Welfare work
has been maintained at a high standard of efficiency, as will be seen
from an inspection of the figures in the chapter of the Report
dealing with Maternity and Child Welfare.
The Housing activities of the Council were mainly concerned
with the repair of unfit houses and the development of the St.
John's College Housing Estate, the purchase of which was completed
in 1930. The plans and lay-out of the Estate, which, when
completed, will provide 272 working-class tenements on the Estate,
will provide a valuable contribution to the Housing needs of the
Borough. The erection of these dwellings was pressed forward
towards the close of the year and the first block of 39 dwellings was
expected to be ready for occupation in the Spring, and the second
block of 50 tenements by the Autumn of 1932.