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116
OVERCROWDING.
Considering the matter in more practical detail, I
have to report a continuance of the unsatisfactory conditions
which have prevailed for some years in attempting
to deal with overcrowding as a "nuisance" under
the Public Health Acts. The plain fact is that the
majority of the overcrowded families are too poor to pay
for the accommodation they require, even if it were
available, at prevailing rentals. Unless, therefore, either
their economic position is substantially improved, or,
what amounts to the same thing from a housing point
of view, housing accommodation is provided by the State
at a substantially reduced rental, overcrowding cannot be
abolished. Recognising these facts only the more outrageous
cases are taken up for "official action." Fifteen
such cases were reported to the Public Health Committee
during the year, but I am afraid that in the great
majority of the cases no useful action was found
possible.
RENT AND NUTRITION.
Attention has been directed in "The Lancet" and
other medical journals to the close connection between
the relatively high rentals required from working class
tenants and their lowered standard of nutrition resulting
from their diminished incomes.
The facts are somewhat obscured by " average"
figures which do not reveal the great variations which
exist. Control has, of course, had the effect of keeping
the general level of rent lower than it would otherwise
have been, but the unfortunate tenant of the decontrolled
tenement finds little consolation in this average for his
own high rent. Moreover, rent is a fixed standing
charge, while the income from which food, etc., have to
be provided, is a fluctuating and frequently diminishing
amount.
I mention this matter to show that not only is
Housing intimately bound up with the Public Health,
from the point of view of the physical environment,