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24
HOUSING
At the end of 1951 the Council had a total of 669 permanent houses and
flats, a total of 586 temporary houses of various types and controlled a
further 1,444 properties under requisition. The requisitioned properties
housed 2,103 units of tenancy.
During the year, 27 permanent flats were completed for the Council,
and 88 flats, 10 maisonettes and 10 shops were in the course of construction.
1951 was like previous years, a year of austerity with accompanying
shortages and controls, but property owners were generally co-operative
in complying with sanitary notices ; 8,563 improvements were carried
out in 2,495 houses, somewhat less than last year but it is interesting to
note that outstanding works at the end of the year were down to 470 as
compared with 719 the previous year. This may be due to the fact that
in view of Magistrates excluding decorative work from Nuisance Orders,
Sanitary Inspectors are confining their notices to structural matters.
The problems of the repair and maintenance of dwelling houses were
no less acute in 1951 than in previous years. The rising cost of repairs
made the maintenance of old houses uneconomic in many cases. A
large proportion of these old houses are admittedly sub-standard and do
not provide those amenities which are now considered to be essential in
new buildings. They do, however, provide " reasonable " accommodation
at a rental which the poorer paid members of the community can afford.
Private owners are, not unreasonably, unwilling to maintain houses
which cannot possibly provide any return on the necessary capital outlay
and the local authority is equally unwilling to take over all these properties
which are uneconomic and at the same time leave those houses which
provide a reasonable return in private ownership.
In the maintenance of existing property the following is a summary of
the work done in 1951 :—
Public Health (London) Act, 1936
Total number of houses inspected for housing
defects 3,202
Number of Statutory Notices served 972
Number of houses repaired or nuisances remedied 2,495
Housing Act, 1936
Number of houses represented to the Council 3
Number of Demolition Orders made by the
Council, following representation —
Number of houses repaired by owners —
Number of houses, the subject of Closing Orders 3
Number of Closing Orders determined —