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100
a house containing four bedrooms as providing
accommodation for seven persons.
(Note: 1. It will be seen that no account is taken of the living
room accommodation.
2. The bedrooms referred to are of the standard size,
viz., 110 square feet or more,
3. A child, of whatever age, is regarded as a "person.")
It will be seen therefore that comparatively large type dwellings
must be provided if alternative accommodation is to be offered to the
large families living in overcrowded conditions. It is in these "larger
families" where the overcrowding is most acute, and where, in the
main for economic reasons, it is almost impossible for the families
themselves to find appropriate accommodation. Let us take an example
to stress the point under consideration. A man and wife and a family
of one girl and three boys (all under 10 years), although appearing
on the overcrowding records as a family of only four persons, will
require a five roomed house of four bedrooms for purposes of rehousing.
Re-housing Accommodation.
On 22nd July, 1937, the Housing Committee submitted to the
Council further observations and recommendations with regard to the
provision of re-housing accommodation in the Borough. Their report
referred to the fact that on the 30th of April, 1936, they reported that
the estimated requirements of the Borough by way of re-housing
amounted to approximately 300 dwellings, of which 187 were needed
for the abatement of overcrowding, and this need the Council on that
date decided themselves to take all practicable steps to provide. The
Committee felt that it was desirable that any such accommodation
should be built as soon as possible, because the penal provisions against
overcrowding which are contained in the Housing Act, 1936, would
come into force in the Borough on the 1st January, 1938. The Committee
reported that in dealing with this question they had been actuated
by the desire to provide re-housing accommodation for working-class
residents in the Borough in which they were living, and they had
therefore made most exhaustive enquiries in an endeavour to overcome
the difficulties of obtaining sites in Hampstead. Twenty possible sites