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114
Town and Country Planning Act, 1947.—In exercise of
powers under Section 15 of this Act and para. 3 of article 9 of the
Town and Country Planning General Development Order, 1950, the
Minister of Housing and Local Government has issued the Town
and Country Planning (Housing Accommodation) Direction, 1952.
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 1961: —
"During the year under review work associated with de-requisitioning
continued to demand housing priority under the Requisition
Houses and Housing (Amendment) Act, 1955, during which
year "clearing up" operations were completed. Preparatory works
on new building schemes were accelerated by expanding the architectural
section of the Borough Engineer's Department and concurrent
with the new building policy the Council continued to
acquire suitable type properties in the open market for conversion
into self-contained dwellings as a further contribution towards the
general housing pool.
Nearly 200 dwellings were provided through these agencies
thereby making a very valuable contribution indeed to the housing
resources of the Council which were used primarily to accommodate
families in need from the general waiting list and thereby alleviate
the pressure which had been building up over the previous two
years because of de-requisitioning procedure.
During the year the Housing Committee again reviewed the
conditions governing applicants on the waiting list and as a result
decided to divide the register into two groups "A" and "B" to
distinguish between demand for accommodation as opposed to
need. Group "A" which is equivalent almost to one half of the
total waiting list deals with applicants who are in need of more
suitable accommodation, the governing factors being bedroom
deficiency, sharing facilities such as living room, kitchen, bathroom,
toilet, cookers, inadequacy of hot water facilities and medical considerations.
It is anticipated that the most deserving cases in this
particular category will have been provided with better housing
accommodation by the end of 1965.