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8
Housing Act, 1949
Section 4 of the Housing Act, 1949 enables the Council
to assist residents to purchase their own houses. It entails
considerable work in the Public Health Department for each house
must be fit, or rendered fit, for human habitation if the Council
is to grant a loan.
Similar work is involved under Section 20 which deals
with improvement grants. In each case initial inspections have
to be made and supervision carried out whilst repairs are in
progress. Further visits will have to be made to see that the
premises are maintained in a satisfactory condition.
The following tables and diagram show the extent of
the work carried out in the past years. It will be seen that 83
applications were received in 1955 for loans under Section 4,
i.e. from persons desiring to buy and own their own home with
help from the Council and that this number has increased year
by year since 1951• The number of improvement grants is not yet
large but it must be noted that 21 applications were received
in 1955, compared with 8 in 1954.