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Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
BETHNAL GREEN, E.2.
May, 1955.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green.
Mr. Mayor, Ladles and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the health and
sanitary circumstances of the Borough for the year 1954.
The summer of 1954 was generally cold and wet,but in spite of
this there were less deaths than in the previous year and there
was a reduction in the number of cases of notifiable infectious
disease and from this point of view the year was satisfactory.
The matter which probably aroused most public and press comment
was the passing of the Housing Repairs and Rents Act of 1954. The
Intention of the Act was to preserve existing houses in spite of
the increased cost of repairs by allowing the owner to increase
the rent in those cases where he had in fact carried out full and
proper maintenance and at the same time to lay a duty on the local
authority to make proposals for the demolition of all the "slum"
properties within their area.
Some proposals for slum clearance were submitted to the London
County Council as a basis for the next five-year programme before
the passing of the Act and further surveys were carried out
towards the end of the year with a view to including all the
remaining property in the Borough which should be dealt with under
clearance procedure.
It was anticipated that many owners might serve notices of
increase of rent within a very short time of the Act coming into
force and that there would consequently be a sudden and large
demand for certificates of disrepair. This in fact did not happen,
and the 150 or so applications for certificates of disrepair which
were received in September were largely from the tenants of two
sets of block dwellings where the owners had not fully appreciated
their responsibility for putting the property into good repair nor
had they appreciated that the issue of the certificate of disrepair
would not only deprive them of the increased rent applied for but
also of the 40% increase which had been allowed under previous
Rent Acts.