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37
SECTION C
Sanitary circumstances of the Area
The tables on pages 62 to 64 summarise, as far as possible,
the sanitary work of the Department; from these it will be seen
that a total of 16,443 houses and premises have been inspected or
re-inspected during the year; 918 intimation notices and 149
statutory notices were served.
Registered complaints, numbering 1,203, show a fall of 29
from those of the previous year, but again this total is greatly in
excess of the pre-war average of 700.
Repeatedly in the post war years it has been pointed out in
this Report that, as a means of improving sub-standard houses, the
use of Section 9 of the Housing Act, 1936, has virtually been prohibited
by the rising costs of labour and materials and that although
insanitary conditions are remedied, mainly by the application of the
Nuisance sections of the Public Health Act, this seldom provides
adequate or complete repair.
Representations on these lines have been made from time to
time by Local Authorities to the Minister of Housing and Local
Government emphasising also the need for legislation in order to
overcome obstruction to the satisfactory repair of dwelling houses
occasioned by the Rent Restrictions Acts.
Presumably as a result of these official expostulations the
Government, at the close of the current year, produced a white
paper ' Houses, the Next Step ' which will shortly be translated into
some tangible form of legislation affording, it is hoped, means
whereby Local Authorities may be enabled to alleviate the extremely
serious and difficult housing situation.