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32
Overcrowding.
Eight cases of overcrowding creating offences against the pro
visions of Section 78 of the Housing Act, 1957, were investigated
and appropriate action taken to secure the abatement of the overcrowding.
In one case legal proceedings were taken against the landlord, who
was fined £1, and £2 costs were awarded to the Council.
Housing Act, 1961.
Part II of this Act contains amendments to the Housing Act, 1957.
One of its most important provisions relates to Houses in Multiple
Occupation and to Regulations that have now been made by the Minister.
New and greatly strengthened powers are given to Local Authorities,
and these powers fall into four main groups:—
(1) Power to apply a Code of Management to individual houses
in which proper standards of management have not been
observed. The requirements for this Code are prescribed in the
Housing (Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation)
Regulations, which came into operation May, 1962.
(2) Stronger powers to require the provision of additional facilities
and amenities essential to decent living standards, and provision
of adequate means of escape from fire.
(3) Power to carry out works in default and recover the cost.
(4) Power to make a direction limiting the number of persons who
may live in a house or part of a house in multiple occupation.
These powers are strong enough to deal with the worst type
multi-occupied houses where anything less would be unlikely to achieve
results. It may, in many cases, however, be possible to effect improvements in the management of a house by informal approach, without the
need to make a Management Order or the service of Notices. This in
fact has been done in two cases.
An area in the Borough, containing a large number of properties
in multiple occupation, has been inspected to obtain some indication of
the problems to be met in the application of the new powers. The survey
showed that overcrowding was not as serious as was at first anticipated.
A number of these cases were due to the natural increase of the size of
the family since occupation.
Certain houses were found to be let in single rooms to individual
men, and the weekly rents from these premises were high. The houses,
however, were in good structural and decorative repair, and well
managed. They were occupied mostly by coloured students who took
most of their meals out. Generally, there was a lack of watercloset
accommodation, the waterclosets being shared by several families.
Houses containing bathrooms lacked a hot water supply, and where
the use of the bathroom was shared the facility was not valued by the
occupiers.
In none of the houses in the area were there conditions of squalor
or gross neglect. It is the intention to deal with Houses in Multiple
Occupation, and to complete a Register as suggested by the Minister, so
that conditions in such houses are always under review.