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48
Council resolved that all applicants approved for accommodation
should be interviewed by the Housing Committee before they were
granted tenancies of Council houses and flats, and this policy was
operated during the last three months of the year.
Transfers.—In the early part of the year, a postal survey of
all requisitioned accommodation was carried out with a view to
bringing up-to-date information regarding the occupation of
requisitioned properties. The first results of the survey were reported
to the appropriate Committee in July 1949. They showed that
according to the information returned by the licensees there were
442 units of accommodation where there were insufficient bedrooms
for the families, and 66 householders who had more than one room
in excess of their requirements. On receiving this report consideration
was given to the question of a definite policy whereby licensees
in requisitioned property could be accommodated in permanent
dwellings. It was decided that, in the first place, all casual voids on
the Council's permanent estates should be reserved for these transfer
cases. Where new properties became available, it was left that the
Housing Committee should decide on the proportions to be allocated
to new applicants and to transfer cases in the light of circumstances
prevailing when such accommodation became available. For
example, their decision in respect of the 74 Mascalls Court Flats
which became available toward the end of the year was that 37
should go to transfer cases and 37 to registered applicants.
The effect of this decision means that, in the majority of cases,
housing applicants are accommodated in requisitioned units of
accommodation in the first instance. Thereafter they are transferred
to permanent accommodation. In considering such transfers,
of course, the Committee take into account the records of the
licensees concerned in deciding whether they would make satisfactory
tenants.
It was further decided that 60% of the allocations available to
transfer cases should go to families where there is bedroom deficiency
other than statutory overcrowding, those cases longest in occupation
of requisitioned property to be considered first, and the remaining
40% to go to those cases approved on special grounds such as
medical reasons, under-occupation, statutory overcrowding, occupation
of temporary hutments, etc.
It is too early yet to be able to say how this decision will work
out in practice, but there is no reason to believe that it will be other
than satisfactory.
During the year a total of 127 transfers were effected, 77 of the
families moving to requisitioned properties and 50 into permanent
dwellings or E.F.M. bungalows.