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108
December, 1937, and that the tenant occupied the premises in February,
1938. The facts were reported to the Housing Committee, who
authorised the Town Clerk to institute the necessary proceedings to
secure abatement of the overcrowding. The family were given alternative
accommodation by the London County Council and no proceedings
were taken.
It is interesting to note how certain aspects of the housing problem
remain notwithstanding the reduction that has taken place in overcrowding.
I find on reference to an exhaustive report of the Housing
Committee presented to the Council in 1902, statements submitted in
support of housing activity on the part of the Council that may well
be repeated to-day. Thus, the Committee then stated in their
Report:—
"It is no uncommon thing to find that one-fifth to one-third of the wageearners'
total wages is absorbed by the single item of rent".
"While there is a general demand for more, better and cheaper housing
accommodation in Hampstead, the general deficiency strikes with special
force upon the breadwinners of families including three or more
children especially those in which the children have arrived at a time
of life when separate sleeping accommodation is desirable, no less for
moral than for physical considerations
The high rents of to-day still in many cases press unduly heavily on
the wage-earners, and the difficulty specially experienced by other than
small families in obtaining adequate accommodation is a very real one.
This factor of high rents is witnessed in the Maternity and Child Welfare
Assistance Sub-Committee where it was found that 608 per cent.
of applicants were eligible for milk grant although in full work.
The Housing Committee has pushed forward during 1938 with the
negotiations in connection with the schemes for the erection of dwellings
at Garnett Road and at New End.. The Committee has expressed
its desire to provide re-housing accommodation at reasonable rents for
working-class residents if possible in the Borough in which they now
live.
Licence to Sleep Persons in excess of Permitted Number.
An application from Messrs. B. B. Evans & Co., Ltd., of 140-162,
Kilburn High Road, for a licence under Section 61 of the Housing