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91
recorded in the Borough and in making provision
under the Housing Act 1936, for the systematic legal
discouragement if not prevention of further
overcrowding.
ABATEMENT OF OVERCROWDING
During the task of measuring up of all rooms in
the Borough which would be subject to the
provisions of the Housing Act 1936 on the appointed
day, the opportunity was taken to revise the register
of overcrowded families. The following statistics are
therefore as reliable as is possible in the absence of
any machinery for recording the migration of the
population from day to day.
At the end of 1937 there were 3,005 cases on the
register. During 1938, 889 cases were added (713 of
these were discovered during the course of the
measuring of rooms) making a total of 3,894 cases to
be dealt with. By the end of the year this total
had shrunk to 2,448, the total of 1,446 removed from
the register being composed as follows:—
Equivalent
Families adults
Rehoused by L.C.C. (including 63 in
connection with Clearance areas) 215 1,105
Rehoused by Borough Council 2 12½
Rehoused by Housing Association 1 6½
Removed—mostly without trace 371 1,660½
Alterations in families (by deaths,
marriages, arrangements for members
of families to sleep out, taking
over extra rooms, etc.) 857 5,518
1,446 8,302½
The 2,448 families remaining on the register at
the end of 1938 comprised 12,762 equivalent adults.
The system of certification on the part of the
Borough Council which gives preferential consideration
to applicants to the London County Council