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HOUSING
Housing Act, 1957 - Sections 16 and 18
The inspection of individual houses and parts of houses resulted in closing
orders being made in respect of six whole houses, forty-four parts of buildings, in
addition one demolition order was made.
There are still considerable numbers of individual unfit houses and parts of
buildings in various parts of the Borough, but owing to the shortage of alternative
accommodation for displaced families action under these sections of the Housing Act
must be somewhat limited at the present time.
Pour houses and seventeen parts of buildings which were subject to closing orders
were brought up to Housing Act standard during the year, and the closing orders
determined.
Housing Act, 1957 - Part III
At the beginning of the year there remained to be dealt with a numberof properties
in the current (1961-65) Slum Clearance Programme.
With the amalgamation of the two Boroughs in April the outstanding joint
programme amounted to 20 Areas - 3 within the old Islington boundaries and 17 within
the Finsbury area.
During the year two areas in this programme were represented: -
1. Christie Street/Roads Place comprising 23 houses.
2. Epping Place/Offord Road comprising 9 houses.
The Borough was surveyed during the year and the new Slum Clearance Programme
for the five-year period 1966-70 produced and jointly agreed with the Greater London
Council.
Hie programme consisted of 52 areas comprising in all 1.679 dwellings (including
Beaconsfield Buildings) and 25 of these areas comprising 617 dwellings fall to be dealt
with by this Council.
Three areas which had been included in this programme (1966-70) were also
represented:-
1. Beaconsfield Buildings comprising in all 369 flats, (these blocks of
tenement flats subsequently being acquired by the Greater London Council).
2. Bishop's Grove/Hawthorne Street consisting of 38 houses.
3. Playford Road/Pooles Park comprising 73 houses.
Close liaison was maintained with the Greater London Council in respect of
clearance areas represented by that Authority, and housing inspectors attended public
enquiries in order to provide supporting evidence.
A survey was also made of tenement blocks within the Borough. Many of these were
found to have unsatisfactory features, viz. the sharing of water closets, inadequate
refuse storage and disposal arrangements, water closet compartments opening directly
into kitchens, inadequate natural light and ventilation to rooms, and bad arrangement
generally. Many of the tenement blocks so affected did not warrant inclusion in the
Slum Clearance Programme but were not capable of improvement.
Housing Act, 1957 - Section 9
The work of repair and improvement to 5 unfit houses, subject to Section 9
notices was satisfactorily completed during the year. In addition to these houses
made fit under formal procedure, other unfit houses were dealt with informally and repaired
to Housing Act standard.
This applied particularly to two areas, Haverstock Street/Remington Street and
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