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79
Housing Survey.—Through the courtesy of Mr. F. H. Dore,
the Housing Manager, the following extracts are quoted from his
observations on the housing position in 1955 :—
" Undoubtedly, the most important factor affecting the Councils
housing activities during this year was the coming into force on the
6th June of the Requisitioned Houses and Housing (Amendment)
Act, 1955. The purpose of the Act is to bring requisitioning to an
end by March 31st, 1960 and a provision which came into effect
immediately was the prohibition against using requisitioned accommodation
to house families off the general register. Since a large
proportion of allocations of accommodation to housing applicants
are in properties vacated by previous tenants, this had an immediate
effect on the rate of letting by reason of the fact that hitherto many
such vacancies had arisen in requisitioned accommodation. Fortunately,
this loss was offset, as far as 1955 was concerned, by the fact
that more than three times as many new dwellings were handed over
for letting during the year. One hundred and seven new dwellings
at Pond Road, Woolwich Road, Tuskar Street, Ormiston Road,
Westbrook Court and Coldbath Street were completed and occupied.
The completion of the Pond Road estate and the near completion
of the Coldbath Street Estate during the year meant that all the
sizeable housing sites have now been used up and, towards the end
of the period under review, a start had to be made on clearing some
of the sites occupied by temporary bungalows so as to make land
available for redevelopment. Since the families in these bungalows
had to be transferred elsewhere, this again reduced the proportion
of accommodation available for general letting.
Despite these demands on the Council's housing resources, 133
families were rehoused from the housing register during the year,
only 7 less than in 1954. The number of transfers was 129 as
against 102 in 1954, the increase being due partly to the need to
transfer families from the temporary bungalows as already referred
to. Mutual exchanges between tenants have still been encouraged
and 46 such exchanges were effected as against 52 in the preceding
12 months.
It is interesting to note that, despite the fact that the number
of housing applicants fixed up during the year was only 133, the
number on the register fell from 2,861 on the 1st January, 1955 to
2,647 on the 31st December and this drop occurred notwithstanding
the fact that, during the year, 511 new applications were registered.
It is known that at least 45 of the families were rehoused by the