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78
Consequent upon the issue of this Direction, the Borough
Council is consulted by the London County Council (the Planning
Authority) before any application for planning permission involving
change of use of premises from use as a dwelling, is determined.
Such consultations are designed to prevent any unnecessary aggravation
of the housing situation by the encroachment of business
premises into residential property.
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 1956 :—
" In my observations last year I referred to the coming into
force of the Requisioned Houses and Housing (Amendment) Act,
1955. The full impact of this measure was felt in 1956 and altogether
463 dwellings were derequisitioned during the year. A high
proportion of these were released to the owners with the occupiers
still in residence under a provision in the Act whereby these licensees
became the owners' statutory tenants.
Whilst derequisitioning is the aim of the Act there is a proviso
that parts of requisitioned houses falling vacant cannot be released
without the consent of the owners if they did not constitute separate
dwellings prior to requisitioning. The result of this is that in many
cases parts of houses have to stand empty pending the vacation of
the rest of the premises, and at the end of the year there were 35
such dwellings unoccupied.
Reference was also made last year to the need for clearing temporary
bungalow sites so as to make land available for redevelopment.
During the year 28 bungalows were vacated and demolished
so as to clear sites in Greenwich High Road, Woolwich Road and
Sunfields Place.
The effect of these losses of accommodation under the control
of this Council meant that, notwithstanding the fact that 177 new
dwellings were completed during the year, the total number of lettings
under management fell from 4,668 at the end of 1955 to 4,351
at the end of 1956.
Although the number of new properties handed over was more
than in the previous year, fewer families were rehoused from the
Housing Register, 118 against 133 in 1955. This was of course due
to the loss of requisitioned accommodation and the need to rehouse
families from the prefabricated bungalows subsequently demolished.