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85
Housing.
Although it is probably safe to say that the difficulties of securing
adequate housing for all families in the Borough are not greater
than in former years, the pressure on available accommodation is still
great, notwithstanding the number of families who have removed to
houses provided by the London County Council or subsidised by the
Borough Council.
It is naturally those families who are most embarrassed financially
whose existing environment is worst, and it is these families in
particular whom the Housing Committee have in mind and for whom
they are determined to provide a home at a suitable rental.
The impossibility of many families securing proper accommodation
will be at once apparent when it is remembered that the
standard set up in the Report for 1915-16 of the Chief Medical Officer
of the Ministry of Health on Child Mortality is as follows:—
"No family can be regarded as housed under conditions which
fulfil the needs of health unless the house or tenement provides
adequate sleeping accommodation, and comes up to the following
minimum standard in other respects:—
1. An adequate kitchen and living room, possibly the two
combined.
2. Cool and dustless storage for food.
3. A scullery with sink and water supply within the dwelling.
4. Satisfactory storage for coal and a movable covered ashbin.
5. Separate sanitary conveniences for each family."
Nevertheless progress is quietly and steadily made by your
Officers, whose efforts have been persistently maintained during the
year under review.
In Hampstead the problem of the working class in finding accommodation
at reasonable rents is more pronounced than in most London
Boroughs. Many of the large houses in the Borough are now let out
in rooms, but the rents charged form too high a proportion of the
workers' earnings. It would appear that the unavoidable result in
certain cases is that not enough money remains after the payment of